History

Soon after independence, the Government of Kenya realised the potential the tourism sector held in the economic development of the country. However, a glaring handicap to the development of this sector was the lack of qualified human resource, particularly among indigenous Kenyans.

The Government thus approached the Swiss Confederation with a plan to establish such a training institution for this purpose – a move that saw the first batch of Hotel Management trainees enrolled at Kenya Polytechnic in 1969.

But soon the Government realised the need to train not only managers but also the other cadres for the industry that was increasing gaining importance. This led to the establishment in 1975 of a fully-fledged hospitality and tourism training institution – the Kenya Utalii College.

The College, situated along Thika Road, on the outskirts of the city of Nairobi, has since grown both in size and scope to become a world leading hospitality and tourism training institution.

Kenya Utalii College has trained over 36,000 persons in various hotel and tourism professions. These include graduates of the full-time courses who number more than 8,000 while the rest fall in the other categories of short courses, including in-service. The College graduates today represent about 20 per cent of the hotel and tourism industry work force in Kenya. The College’s graduates also occupy important executive positions in the industry outside Kenya, a fact that has earned the College a leading position as one of the world’s biggest contributor to the development of hotel and tourism industry.