Eng. Riungu’s responds to questions from the delegates

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

IEK Chairman, Eng. Riungu, took some time to respond to questions that had been asked by delegates at the ongoing International Engineer’s Conference. Most questions bordered on engineering training and registration as an engineer. We sample a few below;-

On the issue of Conflict of interest of an employed engineer who also practices privately~ “I don’t think there is any problem in an employed engineer working privately. As long he does not get himself in a place where there is conflict of interest which our code of conduct does not allow. For instance if you are an engineer working with Kenya power and are supposed to design power supply systems for a client and you are also the consulting engineer for this particular client then clearly there will be a conflict of interest.“ On measures put in place by EBK to ensure quality construction works ~ “This is really a straight forward thing. All that is required is reinforcing the established board for it to have sufficient resources to implement the act. In some cases the board may outsource services and that is why it is important for Engineers to register and get these opportunities.” On the act failing to mention the fate of contractors who becomes responsible for poorly implemented projects? ~ “Sometimes I don’t think it is the contractors who are responsible for the poor implementation but rather the engineers supervising that job. You as an engineer must take your job seriously and make sure that the contractors do take short cuts. I know the association of Contractors is also trying to make sure that only registered contractors are assigned contracts but if you are the engineer on site then you must make sure you do your job” The one year time frame given to Egerton university to comply was thought to be very Short ~ “My take on this is that what is the price of producing people who are not ready for the industry and charging huge fees for five years? Is there any use? We as a board believe that what is going on is not right. We do not have a body like the Law society of Kenya which works closely with the faculties but the onus is with the universities to ensure they comply with the law.” Low transition of graduate engineers to professional engineers and what IEK doing ~ “We as IEK have been organizing conferences every month to encourage graduate engineers to undergo the registration exercise but the response is not so good. We have plans of a three year program after graduation that will make it easy for engineers to register.” Research projects counting for registration ~ “As long as your research gives a practical solution for an engineering problem then it will count and it will be research that is of great interest to us. But if your research is purely an academic paper then it will not count.”