Paid internships in Kenya are hard to find but if you are keen enough to know the companies and sectors that pay, then you will be in apposition to earn at least Ksh15, 000.
From experience, I have seen students applying for internships in government institutions. For your information, these institutions don’t pay. Research shows that only 10 % of all government institutions in Kenya pay interns. Most of these institutions avoid paying interns because they believe this group has zero practical experience, hence zero input. Some of them are on strict budget, which does not include finances for interns and temporary employees. There are however very few government institutions that pay people on contract terms and interns. Such institutions include research firms like Kemri, KNBS and government financial institutions like KRA, Central Bank of Kenya, Nairobi Securities Exchange, Capital Markets Authority and Parliament.
The worst government institutions to work for are ministries, which pay nothing’’’if you are paid, then stars are aligned towards you.
Banks are other institutions where getting paid as an interns is a matter of chance. In fact, banks rarely accept interns, they believe there are a lot of confidential information which interns can expose. They prefer employing individuals as cashiers and temporary employees. But there are banks, such as Equity, Co-operative, National Bank and NIC that employ interns.
The easiest places to get paid internships are NGOS. These institutions are financed by donors who don’t care who earns what as long as the money is utilized. Only a small percentage of NGOs don’t pay interns.
We have established that most NGOs in Kenya pay interns between Ksh 20,000-Ksh40,000…there are others which pay up to Ksh 60,000 per month.
If you get a chance to work for any NGO as an intern, be sure you will get paid, unless you didn’t negotiate well while joining them.
Also,Audit firms and Insurance companies are other areas where getting paid is almost guaranteed. If you manage to join the big four i.e PWC,Deloitte,E&Y and KPMG,you will earn good cash-even small firm will pay you.
Media houses also pay interns but not as much as you can earn in NGOs and audit companies.
Research companies also pay interns but their salaries are peanuts. We know that almost all research companies in Kenya pay less than Ksh 15,000.
Finally,manufacturing companies like BAT,Unilever and Cocacola pay interns but chances of securing opportunities there are very slim.
