Engineering profession in crisis

By Wachira Kigotho

Recently Higher Education Assistant Minister Asman Kamama said 200 students who graduated with engineering degrees from Egerton University could not practice because their qualifications are not recognised by the Engineering Registration Board.

But what Kamama did not say is that the engineering profession is in crisis.

According to the chairman of the board Dionysius Wanjau -Maina, there are about 1,200 registered engineers. These are the engineers that are registered under Section 19 of the Engineers Registration Act Cap 530 and are authorised to practice and offer professional services. "The pool of registered engineers has been declining at an alarming rate as a result of natural attrition and brain drain," says Mr Wanjau Maina.

Whereas there are about 6,000 engineering of all cadres in the register of the board, most of them might take years before they are certified as professional engineers for lack of practical training.

Wanjau-Maina attributes the problem to lack of credible internship programmes in private and public sector. "Graduate internship has almost collapsed and upcoming engineers lack required training offered in the field to enable them to be registered," says Wanjau-Maina.

But the major problem lies in training engineers. Whereas for many years, engineering education had been dominated by the University of Nairobi and Moi University, in the recent years, other public universities have established engineering degrees without consultation with ERB and international registration bodies.

Universities have launched technical programmes that are hard to determine whether they are for engineers or lower technical cadres. Such is the case of the Egerton University where it is not clear whether holders of Bachelor of Industrial Technology, Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Engineering and Technology and Bachelor of Science in Water and Environmental Engineering are meant to be engineers, technologists or technicians.

Achievement

According to Unesco, engineers are licensed and formally designated as professional, chartered or incorporated engineers. "Globally engineering is regulated by national and international bodies and registration by one or more of those bodies is a recognition of demonstrated achievement of a defined standard and competency," says Unesco in its report: Engineering: Issues Challenges and Opportunities for Development.

Whereas universities and various technical institutes train engineering cadres, registration and licensing is by professional bodies. In Kenya, ERB is the body mandated by law to define categories of engineers, technologists and technicians.

"ERB is required by law to register persons who have followed a recognised structured curriculum and have demonstrated competency in their field of engineering," says Wanjau-Maina

But in the last two decades, there has been an increase of engineering programmes, flawed by out-dated curriculum, rote learning, limited practical training and taught by lecturers who do not update their knowledge. The brutal truth is that universities have been admitting some of the best brains to read for five-year engineering degrees whose career paths lead nowhere.

Currently there are 18 engineering programmes recognised by ERB as offering opportunities towards registration, although there are 30 engineering degree programmes offered in public universities.

Moi University has six of its degrees in electrical, electronics, chemical, production, civil and structural engineering recognised by ERB.

Similarly, six have Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology degrees in mechatronics, mechanical, electrical, electronics, civil and agricultural engineering are on the list. Five University of Nairobi’s degree programmes — electrical, electronics, civil, mechanical and agricultural engineering — are also listed. Egerton University has only it’s Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering on the ERB recognition index.

Low-tier

Missing out on engineer’s career path are degrees offered at Kenyatta University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and Egerton University.

Others include computer and environmental engineering degrees in various universities. To recognise low-tier engineering degrees across the board, the Joint Admissions Board has placed them in Cluster 14-15 instead of Cluster 1-4 that is home to programmes that provide a road map to an engineer’s career. Sources at the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) faulted universities for using demand for engineering education in the country to establish degrees without the necessary capacity.

"Kenyan universities borrow heavily from India, where more than 350,000 students graduate each year from academic technical garages, but only a small fraction end up being recognised by local and international regulatory bodies," said a senior engineer who sought anonymity.