Hope for graduate engineers as new president vows to ease transition

Graduate engineers have a reason to smile after newly appointed Institute of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) President Erick Ohaga promised to accredit them as professional engineers.

Mr Ohaga said currently, the ratio of graduate engineers to professional engineers stands at 20,000 to about 3,000 respectively. ‘‘The Unesco requires that one engineer needs to serve a population of 5,000 and therefore as we speak right now, with a population of 50 million, we expect to have 20,000 professional engineers and this will be my priority as I take over just like it has been in the last two years,’’ said Mr Ohaga.

Mr Ohaga, was speaking last week during the IEK’s President’s inaugural dinner in a Nairobi hotel. He takes over from former President Eng Nathan Matalanga, who served for one term.

Mr Ohanga said plans are in the pipeline to ensure 5,000 graduate engineers transit to professional engineers in the next five years. He said out of the current 20,000, about 7,000 have acquired training experience and only require mentorship to move to professional engineers.

The huge ratio between graduate and professional engineers was also raised by the Engineers Board of Kenya Chairman Eng Erastus Mwongera while attending the dinner virtually. Mr Ohaga said they will work closely with university deans and councils and the Commission for University Education.