Engineers' body poll: Buildings collapse, jobs dominate debate

Engineer Grace Muthoni Kagondu makes her remarks as she launched her manifesto the the 2024-2024 IEK Presidency. [Patrick Vidija, Standard]

Engineers are set to cast their votes next Thursday as they search for a new president of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya in a battle that pits Eng Grace Kagondu, current first Vice President at IEK, against Eng Shammah Kiteme, a consulting engineer.

The two candidates are promising to put in place mechanisms that will offer more opportunities for engineers both locally and in the diaspora. They also say they will deal with the menace of collapsing buildings, which they both noted was largely on account of developers that cut corners and fail to incorporate professionals during the construction phase of a project.

They are seeking to succeed Eng Erick Ohaga, the current President in the national election to be conducted on March 21.

Kagondu, who has been serving as the first Vice President for the 2022-24 term, said her presidency would prioritise advocating for policies and legal frameworks that support the engineering profession. She will partly count on the milestones that current IEK leadership has made, having been part of the team but said she will implement further changes aim at making the body innovative.

"You have seen IEK has become a progressive association, vibrant and dynamic. We have moved from one level into another and if you elect me, we can only go further," she said, at a debate with Kiteme televised by Citizen TV Wednesday.

"I will transform IEK to be a platform of opportunities for all engineers (including) graduate engineers who are the majority. All the branches will feel the presence of IEK and opportunities coming your way. I will ensure that the branches get more allocation of funding and strengthen the secretariat to be able to support the branches."

Kiteme is promising that under his leadership "engineers will leap into the future".

"I will provide leadership that brings us to the national conversation as solution providers, provide a platform where conversations about infrastructure are led by engineers, create opportunity for empowerment, enforce the 40 percent local content, work towards aggressive advocacy to make sure that the laws in this country create a safe practising space for engineers and build lasting partnerships that will be beneficial to engineers," he said.

IEK has 12,000 members but only about 3,500 who are accredited will vote at next week's polls.

A key concern for many Kenyans especially those residing in urban areas particularly rented apartments is the quality of the buildings that they live in. Throughout the years, buildings have collapsed and claimed lives.

According to a 2020 National Construction Authority (NCA) report, 70 percent of the buildings in Kenya's major urban areas are unsafe. The Authority assessed 14,895 buildings and found that 10,791 were not safe and needed to be reinforced and in some cases where they could not be salvaged, they needed to be demolished.

The major contributors to collapsing buildings are poor workmanship, which contributes to the highest percentage of collapsed buildings at 35 per cent. Others are use of substandard construction materials stood at 28 per cent and unprofessional and unethical conduct of contractors at 34 per cent.

There is also the issue of quacks and even rogue engineers that the IEK leadership has to contend with.

"The reason we are seeing this (buildings collapsing) is simply because the public and the developers are not making use of the resources of engineers who have the skills and the training to give proper guidance as to how the building should be designed and constructed. We have also seen building collapse because the developers, not because they lack funds but choose not to employ qualified engineers," said Kagondu.