Engineers challenged to work on self presentation

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

There is need for engineers to thoroughly work on their communication as a way of raising the profile of the engineering profession. This is according to Eng. Cyrus Njiru the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industrialization.

“In order for Engineers to take charge in their rightful position in the implementation of the vision 2030 blue print, we need to change the way we present ourselves” he said. Eng. Njiru while addressing delegates at the Engineers’ International Conference emphasized the need for quality engineering training. He said that the first degree was not enough for people who wanted growth in their career as engineers. “Engineers must be trained to think bigger”, said the PS. The PS called upon engineers to reflect on ‘the challenges of our times’ which he highlighted as follows;- -A beautiful population majorly composed of the youth -We are essentially a trading and an agricultural country -We have a serious unemployment crisis -We have a low level of infrastructure development Eng. Njiru emphasized on the need to shift from overreliance on trading and agriculture and instead venture in manufacturing. The PS also questioned the roles played by other disciplines in the implementation of vision 2030 claiming that poor economic projections had led to various challenges currently being faced by city dwellers in Kenyan cities. “If the economists would give accurate projections of how many cars they expected in Kisumu in 2013 then the engineers would plan and build the city roads with this in mind. We therefore need to question the economic projections presented to us”, he said. The PS called upon IEK to lobby for positions of County Engineers in the County governments. Vision 2030, he said, will not be achieved by law makers making bills in parliament but rather by the engineers taking charge, providing technical support and implementing projects.