IEEE Seeks a Working Relationship with IEK

Last Updated 9 years ago by Kenya Engineer

A meeting to revive the National Society Agreement between Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) was held at the IEK headquarters on 16th May 2017. There was a total attendance of 20 people; seven IEEE representatives, two Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) representatives, eight IEK representatives and three Kenya Engineer representatives. Both the president of IEK and IEEE, Eng. Michael Okonji and Eng. Karen Bartleson respectively, attended the meeting.

IEEE, according to Eng. Karen Bartleson, is the largest professional organization in the world with 430,000 members in 190 countries. IEEE has six areas of focus; Education; Publications and Conferences; Standards; Membership Development (Membership and Geographical activities); Technical Activities (the largest portion of the organization) and Ethics and Technologies. 

IEEE is in Africa mainly because is it has an African agenda that has developed over the last few years and it also has resources that can be used in Africa.  The agenda for the meeting was divided into three parts; Education and workforce development; Building local sustainable communities of IEEE members and; supporting policy development. 

In the discussion, the issue of Energy as a tool towards achieving Vision 2030 was discussed in detail. There are six elements to it; energy adequacy, sustainability (climate change), power reliability, affordability, interconnection (neighboring countries) and access (to consumers). Statistics show that in 2013 only 28% of the country had access to electricity. In 2017, this has grown to approximately 65% while the target is to hit 70% by the end of the year. By 2020, the country should have universal access. IEEE members, impressed by the progress, suggested a couple of conferences that IEK members could attend that will help equip the engineers with information to realize the Vision 2030 development policy. The POWER AFRICA conference that will take place in Ghana in June and AFRICON which will be in South Africa in September are some conferences they fronted. 

There was an agreement from both parties to explore the benefits that could result from their joint agenda and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the same. These could result in a generic understanding and eventually the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). IEK also urged IEEE to participate in its future annual International Engineers conferences.