2026 Application Cycle Closed
The Cohort 10 application cycle for undergraduate tech students studying at Kenyan universities is now closed. Applications for the next cycle will open in October 2026. Meanwhile, read the eligibility criteria below and responses to FAQs.
Mentee Eligibility
Each year, we admit at most 40 students from various Kenyan tertiary institutions to our premier undergraduate upskilling track. Here are the requirements for potential mentee applicants.
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We welcome applications from students pursuing an undergraduate degree from any Kenyan tertiary institution.
Applicants should have at least four months ( or one term /one semester ) left to the end of their undergraduate degree when they apply. For example, the applicant must be at most pursuing level 4.1 for a 4-year degree and 5.1 for a 5-year degree in November 2025 if they are applying for the March 2026 intake. This requirement is essential to ensure that selected beneficiaries have time to learn and apply skills gained from the program to their academic endeavors and career prospects.
We currently do not accept applicants in their final semester/term at the time of application or who have completed their degree but are awaiting graduation.
We currently do not accept applicants pursuing postgraduate degrees or diploma courses due to the design of our mentorship curriculum towards the target beneficiaries. However, we shall launch new mentorship models for other target audiences in the future.
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We welcome undergraduate students pursuing any tech-aligned degree whose core component is computing. Our beneficiaries have been students of but not limited to courses such as - B.Sc in Computer Science, Bachelor of Business Information Technology, B.Sc in Telecommunication and Information Engineering, B.Sc Applied Computing, B.Sc in Computer Information Systems, B.Sc Mathematics and Computer Science, and B.Sc in Telecommunication and Information Engineering.
If you are pursuing courses such as B.Sc Mechatronic Engineering, B.Sc Biomedical Engineering, or any other course that may not have a tech-related name in its title but utilizes computing principles, you are welcome to apply.
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Due to the demanding nature of the mentorship program, which would be additional work to their regular school studies, applicants should have a minimum average GPA of 2.5 or an average score of grade 'C.'
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Applicants will be required to submit the following documents with their application:
An official transcript for students who are in level 1.2 or above.
Acceptance letter for students who have just joined university.
An essay of at most 800 words that addresses specific questions.
A reference letter from a faculty member or professional mentor. References from family members are not allowed.
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Given our target audience of active students and our goal to complement classroom learning rather than replace it, our undergraduate model considers these factors in its implementation by not interfering with our beneficiaries' ongoing studies.
The program is offered through a hybrid (online and in-person) model.
The hybrid sessions take place in the evenings and weekends, except Sundays.
The physical in-person sessions occur on 1-2 Saturdays per month, so applicants should be able to avail themselves on this day.
Each month of the program includes 3-6 training sessions with professional mentors, which are complemented by takeaway exercises and sessions with peer mentors.
Accepted applicants must commit to the rigorous 9-month program (Mid-March to November of each year), inclusive of program breaks.
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All beneficiaries who complete the program attend a graduation ceremony at the end of the cohort receive a certificates of completion. We also have various competitive awards that are won by beneficiaries e.g. Innovation award for the best innovation team, public speaking winner, and so con. These awards are instrumental as impactful additions to beneficiaries' CVs.
Mentor and Partner Eligibility
Each year, we work with at least 15 industry professionals and one company partner as session trainers, competition judges, keynote speakers, and community collaborators. Here are the requirements for potential mentors.
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We welcome mentors who have experience and skill across all our pillars. We work with the following mentor model:
Non-tech session facilitators who provide hands-on upskilling for our non-tech topics such as but not limited to public speaking, emotional intelligence, and interview preparation.
Tech session facilitators who provide hands-on upskilling for topics such as but not limited to preparation for tech interviews, version control, open source, and software engineering in practice.
ICT lead mentors who are the main trainers for our ICT tracks in cybersecurity, data science, web development, and mobile development. Other tech tracks are introduced on a need-basis based on our beneficiaries' career goals.
Competition reviewers and judges who contribute to our real-life simulation model in professional development, public speaking competitions, scholarship competitions, and innovation competitions.
Keynote speakers who support our launch and graduation events, as well as on pivotal topics throughout the program.
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We welcome industry professionals with at least three years of hands-on work experience in their intended area of mentorship. Experience in teaching or educating on the area of choice in or outside formal classroom will be beneficial. Leadership experience would be advantageous.
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Industry professionals and companies who collaborate with us do so on a voluntary basis.
We encourage those who work with us to be available for the eight months that a cohort runs so that, apart from the sessions, they attend our launch and graduation events. Mentors are also free to sit in any of the sessions in our program, even outside their teaching interests. Over the years, we have found that professionals also gain other skills by learning from the people we work with.
Keynote speakers are engaged only for a specific event. Short-session facilitators conduct at least two training sessions of 1-3 hours and oversee take-home exercises. Long-session facilitators conduct at least seven hands-on sessions over the eight months of 1-3 hours each session. In the second half of our mentorship curriculum, competition reviewers and judges are engaged across two to four competition cycles.
We provide an onboarding process for our selected mentors to prepare you for this engagement. Also, our administration process offers full support to existing mentors, so they are never working alone.
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We collaborate with companies as:
funding partners who provide financial support for our cohort delivery or to specific training events.
industry visits partners to tech companies for a real-life showing of tech careers.
tech innovation partners where a tech company provides technical resources, APIs, or data for design and build in our ICT tracks, mainly cybersecurity, data science, and software engineering.
hiring model partners where you work with us towards talent management for entry-level careers in project management, data science, cybersecurity and software engineering.
conference volunteer partners when you need dedicated volunteers to support your conference where our mentees can also learn from.
skills exchange partners where our beneficiaries learn from you and your beneficiaries learn from us.
community up-skilling partners, where our beneficiaries train the community on foundational digital skills.
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Whether you partner with us as an industry mentor or company, we offer various benefits to you.
You work within a stakeholder-driven mentorship curriculum that we provide you at the start, so you are always guided and supported within an approved structure.
Access to a talented and motivated group of university tech students eager and willing to build their holistic skills towards global competitiveness.
A platform to give back your skills, experience, and time to the academic and tech community on a long-term basis (over 8 months) thus providing the potential for impact than you would in a one-off session.
We measure KPIs from start to finish using research-based methodologies such as pre-post assessment methods, session reviews, and stakeholder feedback, so you will always know the impact of your work, which will contribute to your personal and professional skills and achievements.
Free access to all our mentorship sessions, launch, and graduation ceremony, which are interactive, fun and impactful.
We offer a hybrid model so you can participate virtually from anywhere in the world. The exceptions for virtual participation are for launch and graduation keynote speakers and in-person competition judges.
Your profile on our website as a contributor and/or partner.
A certificate of contribution is issued during our graduation ceremony at the end of the program.
FAQs
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KamiLimu (upper case K and L) is derived from two Swahili words, ‘Elimu Kamili’. Elimu means education and Kamili means whole.
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KamiLimu’s application process consists of advertisement of an open application cycle, applicants collecting all the application documents and writing their essays, then submitting them via an online portal by the deadline. All submissions should be made via the provided application form as emailed applications or documents will not be accepted.
Our selection process consists of three stages. It begins with an eligibility check, which involves checking all application requirements and documents. This is followed by an intentional essay review, which aims to give feedback to the applicant. After the eligibility and essay review, a shortlist is compiled, and qualified candidates will proceed to the next stage, which involves a virtual interview and referee validation.
We aim to upskill even those who are not accepted into the program. To achieve this, we:
Provide reasons to applicants who do not proceed past the first round
Give feedback on the essays for those who proceed to the second and third rounds.
Share our essay and interview review criteria with all applicants who participate in these rounds. We change our essay questions and criteria each selection cycle to reduce the advantage on repeat applicants.
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KamiLimu opens its application cycle annually at the start of November and announces it on our website and social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram). Applications close in late January/early February of the following year, followed by a 2-month selection cycle. Cohorts usually start the program in late March.
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No. We are not a coding bootcamp. We are a holistic mentorship infrastructure that combines learning in human and technical skills.
In human skills, you will learn everything from How to Learn and Critical Thinking for AI to Public speaking and Team collaboration.
In technical skills, you learn everything from fundamentals of industry-aligned ICT skills like the use of Git and GitHub to the use of AI in code development. You also get to choose an ICT track where you will be taught a deep dive into the track you choose (more on ICT tracks below).
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No. We are a gender-inclusive ecosystem where we ensure each cohort serves all the students found at universities, irrespective of their gender.
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Technical skills may help you build systems, but human skills help those systems succeed in the real world. As a tech student, you will work with people (users, teammates, managers, clients, and communities) each with different needs, values, and constraints. Skills such as communication, critical thinking, self-awareness, ethics, leadership, and collaboration determine how well you can translate technical knowledge into impact. In an era of AI and rapid automation, human skills are not optional add-ons; they are what differentiate thoughtful technologists from replaceable ones. They enable you to design responsibly, work effectively in teams, adapt to change, and grow into leadership roles throughout your career.
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We offer four ICT tracks:
Data Science.
Software Engineeering.
Cybersecurity.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineering.
These four tracks are taught by two professional mentors, supported by an ICT mentor, throughout the 8 months. Also, since 2025, we partner with tech companies who provide case studies and industry visits to support the technical tracks. You then use these skills to build an end-to-end innovation solution for an identified problem.
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KamiLimu undergraduate students' track is a free mentorship program, so mentees are not expected to pay at any point. Through the years, we have found that this model increases the program's accessibility to students from all institutions and socioeconomic backgrounds.
However, beneficiaries are expected to plan for their transport arrangements when attending in-person physical sessions and also arrange for their internet and computing resources when attending virtual sessions.
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Yes, absolutely!
The program is offered through a hybrid model (online and in-person sessions), so it is also suitable for students in institutions outside Nairobi who benefit from the hybrid offering as it reduces the demand for commuting. The in-person sessions take place in Nairobi.
So far, we have served students from at least ten institutions that are not based in Nairobi whom we support to attend the monthly in-person sessions.
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KamiLimu is a secular, highly inclusive community that does not align with or endorse the values of any religion, political leanings, or activist organization. Our beneficiaries are from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and political and religious affiliations.
Following our community guidelines and core values (safe space, depth, people, structure, play), we have high expectations of our beneficiaries to peacefully work and co-exist with community members from all and different backgrounds without discrimination and prejudice.