Engineering students rekindles issues with regulator
Engineering students are on a war path with the profession’s board following its draft rules for registration of graduate students.
The students are contesting the draft Engineer’s rules 2018, which they say are discriminatory, dictatorial and punitive.
In a petition by Michael Kamau to the National Assembly’s Committee on Delegated Legislation chaired by Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss Shollei, the students want clauses that are inconsistent with best practices expunged before adoption by House.
While appearing before the Shollei-led committee, Kamau told the MPs that of the approximately 21,000 students who have graduated with engineering degree programmes in the country, only 2,000 are licensed by the Engineering Board of Kenya (EBK).
“This limitation of the number of registered engineers in Kenya indicates the existence of grave issues regarding implementation and operationalisation of the Engineers Act 2011,” submitted Kamau.
Kamau submitted that the Engineers Act requires graduate engineers applying for licenses to be registered with the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) as corporate members, but the act does not provide guidelines on how the institution should be run or how the membership system in IEK should work.
Petitioner's concern
Of concern to the petitioner is that IEK is a professional body, independent of control by the government, a members club where members decide on the day to day running of the institution.
“Currently, graduate members who are required to be members of IEK by the Engineers Act, do not have powers to vote within IEK which raises the constitutionality issue in the application of the Act as the rights to participate and be heard of its graduate members are infringed,” said Kamau.
Kamau also argued that lack of exam schedule and procedures in law on constitution of examination panels was affecting the graduate engineers.
In addition, the graduate engineers also contend that the requirement for experienced engineers to start register at least three years earlier only served to discourage people who hold senior engineering positions and have requisite experience but have never started the registration process.
The MPs took EBK Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Musuni to task on the three years wait before graduate engineers are registered. [Rawlings Otieno]
