Kenya Shipyards Limited (KSL) and National Defence University – Kenya (NDU-K) are constituent institutions under the Ministry of Defence. NDU-K is a premier specialized institution of national strategic importance, actively committed to empowering Kenyan and Allied defence and security professionals through world class education and training to advance human intellectual capacity whilst paving the way for collaboration with similar institutions locally and internationally.
NDU-K is composed of six (6) colleges. The grouping of these institutions under the umbrella of NDU-K provides an opportunity for resource sharing, quality assurance, synchronization of training programmes, formation of a centralized mechanism for certification and continually improve its human resource base within the region and in the global arena to be a think-tank on security and strategy. This also promotes the development of strategic leadership assets the country needs to advance its national and international agenda.
KSL is a State Corporation with the mandate of leading and catalysing the introduction of shipbuilding industry in Eastern Africa with a focus on meeting the local demand from Kenya Navy, Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with maritime assets and other public and private domestic and regional clients.
KSL has had a good working relationship with NDU-K since it was awarded a charter on 27 May 21 and the areas of partnership range from research and development, policy development, industrial practice and employment. Students from NDU-K often visit KSL Shipyards in Mombasa and Kisumu and the Nairobi Central Workshop where heavy engineering is undertaken. The industrial experience is critical to the students as they undertake learning in national and international security and defence.
The candidates get insights on areas where they can draw their individual research topics to identify gaps in previous scholarly work or whilst carrying out new research in shipbuilding and related maritime activities. Linkages with centres of excellence like NDU-K enables KSL’s vision to be aligned with national development objectives. Some of the graduands end up working with or for KSL and the Company takes pride in this cordial working relationship.
KSL is a strategic institution contributing to the national economy through modernization of the security agencies maritime capabilities; creation of opportunities to Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) along the maritime value chain; contributing to public policy, governance, research and innovation in maritime domain; providing capacity building and technology transfer to employees, interns and attachés and employment creation.
Shipbuilding is capital, labor and a high-tech, information-depended, material and component intensive industry. Its high dependency upon upstream R&D, rapid pace of product and process innovation, and deep linkages upstream and downstream as well as demanding skilled workers at each stage of production make it a strategic industry. KSL’s strategic plan ensures the sustainable exploitation of the maritime ecosystem for national security, defence, food security and overall economic development.
Shipbuilding provides capabilities and capacity in the maritime sector for sustainable exploitation of the Blue Economy in a manner that does not deplete the maritime resources that the society depends on in the long term. Shipbuilding at KSL promotes local manufacturing of maritime vessels in line with the Kenya Vision 2030 as a national long-term development blueprint that aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country.
Shipbuilding interconnectedness with other sectors provides the maritime assets, capabilities, technologies, best practices, policy and regulation for the Blue Economy sector in areas such as fisheries, maritime transport and shipping, extractive resources, marine renewable energy, coastal tourism and maritime security. To unlock the huge Blue Economy potential which abound within our maritime domain, KSL is poised to provide capabilities for sustainable harnessing of these resources hence contributing to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and National Development Goals.
NDU-K partnership with KSL continues to contribute to industrial and technological development in collaboration with shipbuilding industry; provides a forum for national strategic thinking and addressing the gap in training for formulation of national security policy and strategy; being a focal point for agencies on national strategic security research and development and dissemination for policy making and providing appropriate policies, infrastructure, institutional framework and other resources necessary for promoting quality teaching, research, innovation, industry linkages and community outreach.
