"Over the past five to 10 years a number of major global organizations have set up head or regional offices in Nairobi -- Google, Ericsson, IBM, Huawei, Coca Cola, Airtel Group all have made major investments in infrastructure, equipment and most importantly skills," said Simon Lee, technology and telecommunications consultant at Africa Analysis.

Analysts say that the presence of global brands has benefited the country through business investments, knowledge transfer and investment in skills training, but with the higher salaries offered by some of these companies, local firms have lost qualified staff. This forces local businesses to keep training staff in order to stay competitive. Most of the companies providing continental services have in-house training centers to cope with demand and to replace staff who leave.

In South Africa, the government has mechanisms that explore availability of local expertise before awarding contracts to international companies, but in Kenya such policies do not exist, forcing companies to look to the regional and continental market for areas where major brands have yet to establish a presence.

"We are finding that our experience in growing in a market that offers no protection for local firms has given us a competitive edge in how we approach our markets and mitigate the associated risks," Macharia added.