Nairobi, July 7 -- Every year, thousands of young Kenyans leave university with fresh degrees and an urgent need for work. Alongside them are third-year students scrambling to secure internships, often their first test in an increasingly competitive job market.

Yet companies and new jobs are not growing at the same pace.

Lilian Ngala, the human resources director at Diamond Trust Bank, says this gap is the main reason internships are becoming harder to secure.

"Organisations cannot match the number of students being churned out," Ms Ngala says.

Another factor is cost as a growing number of companies post losses, forcing them to downsize and cut costs, including stipends for interns.

"When a company's finances tighten, internship budg...