ERB accused of failing to honour court order

By ISAIAH LUCHELI

The Engineering Registration Board (ERB) is faced with contempt of court charges for disobeying a court order directing it to register engineering graduates from two universities as well as paying them Sh2 billion.

High Court Judge David Majanja Monday granted the 10,000 students from Egerton and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) leave to institute legal proceedings against the board for failing to implement a court ruling.

The High Court had ordered the board to pay general damages assessed at Sh200,000 to each of the graduates who had been affected by the decision of the board not to register them after graduating from their respective universities.

“The board should pay general damages assessed at Sh200,000 to the petitioner and every engineering graduate from Egerton University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and any other public university graduating at least three years prior to the commencement of the Engineers Act, 2011.

The sum shall carry interest at a rate of 12 per cent per annum from the date of this judgment,” the court had ruled on October 15, this year.

But three months later, the board is yet to register and compensate the students despite the court having given it 14 days to publish at least in two newspapers of national circulation and in a prominent manner, an advertisement of a copy of the decree issued by the court.

The advertisement was meant to invite applications from any person eligible to be considered under section 11(1) (b) of the Engineers Registration Act and graduating with an engineering degree from the two universities and any other public university prior to September 14, 2012, for consideration as engineers and the applications lodged with the Board free of any charge.

The students have filed the suit at the High Court and they submit that since they graduated they had not been able to engage in any gainful employment despite their qualifications and desire to earn a living as their peers from other institutions.

They claimed that despite successful completion of the five-year course, ERB denied them registration. The board, they said, had deprived them their constitutional rights and legitimate expectations of having gainful employment. The board had refused to recognise the courses offered at Masinde Muliro because of what they termed as ‘flaws in the curriculum’.

The engineering graduates from two universities went to court together with former students seeking orders to have them enlisted and the court issued a judgment in their favour. The dispute stems from refusal by the engineers board to approve engineering degree certificates.