Consulting Engineering in Kenya

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

A contribution from Association of Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya-ACEK
Consulting Engineers play important roles in all sectors of Kenya’s economy. They are involved in design, construction or manufacturing supervision/management to ensure quality of the finished product, and performance monitoring. Often, clients engage consulting engineers to carry out auditing of on-going or completed projects. The consulting engineer is expected to provide information and advice on quality, durability and value for money. Consulting Engineering services require a high degree of professionalism and a failure to adhere to professionalism could lead to:

-Unsustainable projects or products
-High construction/manufacturing and maintenance costs
-Pre-mature failure of projects leading to loss of life and/or investments.

Embracing professionalism by all Engineers is therefore not just something that is nice to do but is a must.

Key Players in the Industry

To work as a Consulting Engineer, one must be registered with the Kenya Engineers Registration Board in this category. This is after fulfilment of laid down requirements on academic qualifications and experience. After initial registration, the consulting engineer is required to pay an annual fee to maintain his/her name in the register. The registered engineer then singly or jointly with others forms a Consulting Engineering firm. Different sectors have different requirements and categories of registration. For instance, if a firm wishes to offer services in the road sector, it is required to apply to the Ministry of Roads (MoR), clearly demonstrating past experience and its capacity in terms of human and equipment resources. Currently, MoR registers firms in 2 categories: Classes A and B. Class A firms (currently about 12) are the relatively large firms, by local standards, who can handle relatively large infrastructure projects such as design and supervision of road classes A and B or large span bridges.

Class B firms, are the majority. They are medium or relatively smaller firms that only handle medium or relatively smaller road projects. For instance, design and supervision of roads in classes C, D, E and below are usually reserved for Class B consultants.

In addition to the above 2 major categories, MoR also registers individuals as consultants under Class C. These individuals are usually engaged directly by the MoR as Resident Engineers for the supervision of road projects in their private capacity.

The Consulting Engineering Industry has also other players who are not in any of the above categories. These are foreign international firms who may or may not have a local branch.

Professional Bodies Representing Consulting Engineers

Consulting Engineering firms come under the umbrella body known as Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya (ACEK). ACEK is locally recognised by the Association of Professional Societies of East Africa (APSEA) and Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) as the professional body that represents the interests of the consulting engineering firms. Internationally, ACEK is an affiliate member of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). It is also a member of the Group of African Members Association, GAMA, an advocacy body that currently represents consulting engineering firms in about 14 countries in Africa.

The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) also has an Engineers Chapter and some Engineering Consultants are under their umbrella.

Challenges Facing the Profession

The Industry is currently facing several challenges. One of the major challenges is the enforcement of professional ethics. Professional ethics for those practising engineering are well documented. Unfortunately, bodies representing consulting engineers have no enforcement mechanisms, principally because they have no legal backing. The only punishment given to those found in violation is deregistration of the offender from ACEK.Currently ACEK represent only about 47 firms out of over 200 registered engineering consulting firms. Therefore despite the documented code of ethics enforcement mechanisms are weak and majority of firms actively involved in all types of engineering projects are not bound by this code of ethics.

If ACEK is legally recognised it would formulate enforcement of professionalism mechanisms for its members. And this could assist in bringing sanity in the industry. Engineers Registration Board (ERB) is a body mandated with the monitoring role on professionalism in the engineering industry. However it too lacks capacity to carry out this role. It is hoped that the new Engineering Bill 2011 if enacted would give more teeth to ERB to streamline the profession.

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