Ruto at 4: Has Kenya’s digital jobs promise delivered?

Four years into President William Ruto’s administration, Kenya’s digital economy is bigger, more connected and creating new ways for young people to earn.

But there is a harder question behind the numbers: are digital jobs creating sustainable careers, or simply giving jobless Kenyans another way to survive?

For a growing number of young people, the answer is found not in an office, but on a laptop, smartphone or motorbike.

Some are freelancing for clients abroad. Others are driving for ride-hailing apps, delivering goods, selling products online or taking short-term digital assignments.

The work can provide an income when formal employment is out of reach. But it can also mean irregular earnings, limited protection and little certainty about what the next month will bring.

That tension sits at the heart of President Ruto’s digital jobs agenda as his administration enters its fourth year.

The digital economy is growing

Official data show that Kenya’s Information and Communication sector remains one of the faster-growing parts of the economy.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says the sector expanded by 4.8 per cent in 2025, after growing by 7.1 per cent in 2024. Its output reached Sh728.2 billion in 2025, up from Sh701.3 billion a year earlier.

That growth reflects more than people working online.

It includes telecommunications and other information and communication activities that underpin the wider digital economy.

Internet access has also expanded sharply in recent years, creating a much larger market for digital services and online work.

The result is a country where a young person in Nairobi, Kakamega or Kisumu can increasingly compete for work that was once available only to people living near major employers.

But the jobs story is more complicated

The rise of digital work is happening against a labour market where informal employment remains dominant.

An Ipsos gig economy assessment published in 2026 estimates that about 1.5 million Kenyans participate in the gig economy, covering areas such as ride-hailing, e-commerce, freelancing, remote work and micro-tasks. The report puts the value of the Kenyan gig economy at about $1 billion a year.

The study also found that for many workers, gig income is not simply extra money.

Among surveyed Kenyan ride-hailing workers, 53 per cent identified the work as their primary source of income.

That distinction matters.

It means digital work is no longer just a side hustle for some Kenyans. For a significant number of workers, it is the job.

The same report found that young people are being pushed towards flexible work partly because traditional employment opportunities remain limited.

Kenya's labour force was estimated at about 23 million, while most of the jobs created in recent years have been in the informal economy. The Ipsos assessment cites provisional data showing about 782,300 jobs were created in 2024, with roughly 90 per cent coming from the informal sector.

So while the digital economy is expanding, it is not necessarily replacing the old employment problem.

In many cases, it is absorbing people who cannot find conventional jobs.

The Government says the numbers are moving

The Ruto administration has made digital employment one of its signature economic promises.

In a July 2026 address, President Ruto pointed to investment in fibre infrastructure, digital skills and partnerships with global technology companies as evidence that Kenya is building a stronger technology workforce.

The President said the government had trained more than 1.9 million Kenyans in digital skills and supported hundreds of thousands of young people into digital work.

He also cited the expansion of fibre connectivity and digital hubs across the country.

“As Government, we have matched these partnerships with deliberate investments,” Ruto said.

The President also pointed to companies such as Microsoft, Huawei and Amazon Web Services as partners in Kenya's technology ecosystem.

The government has continued to expand programmes such as Ajira Digital and Jitume, while a new digital outsourcing initiative launched in May 2026 seeks to connect trained young people with international outsourcing opportunities.

The direction is clear.

The Government wants Kenya to sell not just tea, flowers and services, but also the skills of its people to a global digital market.

There is evidence the training pipeline is growing

Government data show that the Ajira Digital programme has trained hundreds of thousands of young people.

A recent ICT sector report records more than 212,000 youth trained under the programme in the 2024/25 financial year, exceeding the target of 200,000.

The Government has also been expanding digital hubs and fibre connections to make online work accessible beyond major urban centres.

This matters because digital employment only works if people can actually get online.

A freelancer with strong skills but unreliable internet, an expensive data connection or no suitable workspace still faces a major barrier.

That is why infrastructure is as important as training.

From Ajira to global outsourcing

Kenya's next challenge may be moving from individual online gigs to larger pools of better-paid, more stable digital employment.

The Government launched the Digital Outsourcing Jobs for Kenya’s Youth initiative in May 2026, aimed at connecting young Kenyans with international and private-sector outsourcing opportunities.

The strategy could help Kenya move beyond a model where an individual freelancer competes for small assignments.

Business process outsourcing, software development, customer support, data services and other digital industries can create larger teams and potentially more predictable employment.

But that will depend on whether companies see Kenya as a reliable place to do business and whether Kenyan workers have the skills demanded by international employers.

The hidden cost of flexibility

For all its promise, gig work comes with a difficult trade-off.

Flexibility is attractive. So is the ability to start earning without waiting months for a formal job.

But flexibility can also mean uncertainty.

A worker may have no guaranteed monthly salary. Income can fluctuate. Equipment, internet, fuel and platform-related costs can eat into earnings.

And unlike a conventional employee, a gig worker may have limited access to benefits normally associated with formal employment.

The Ipsos research itself highlights the importance of understanding the vulnerabilities of platform workers, including income stability and relationships between workers and platforms.

That raises a bigger policy question for Kenya.

If digital work is becoming a major source of employment, should digital workers receive stronger social and economic protections?

The answer will become increasingly important as more young people make the gig economy their main livelihood.

The real test is what happens after training

The biggest measure of the Government's digital jobs programme may not be how many people attend training.

It is what happens afterwards.

Can a young person trained in digital marketing secure regular clients?

Can a software developer find international work?

Can someone in a rural county access the same opportunities as a worker in Nairobi?

Can online earnings eventually support a family, build savings and provide a route into more secure employment?

Those are the questions that will determine whether Kenya's digital revolution becomes a genuine employment story.

There are encouraging signs.

Kenya has a growing technology sector, improving connectivity, a large pool of young workers and increasing interest from global technology companies. Official economic data also confirm that Information and Communication remains an important and expanding part of the economy.

But the size of the opportunity should not obscure the size of the challenge.

For many young Kenyans, the digital economy did not begin as a grand economic vision.

It began with a simple question:

“How can I make money when there is no job?”

Four years into Ruto's presidency, Kenya has built more of the infrastructure needed to answer that question online.

The next test is whether those online opportunities can become good jobs, reliable incomes and lasting careers — rather than simply a more modern form of informal work.

About the Author

Maureen Onyango is a journalist passionate about storytelling, life coaching and spiritual lessons. She studied at the Kenya Institute of Management and enjoys telling stories that inform, inspire and empower communities.