Spanner in the works!!

Recently, I stumbled upon an announcement that the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) were holding a dinner at Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi. The dinner had reserved only 20 slots for engineers to attend. Was the dinner meant for the officials of IEK or was it to the good of the members registered as engineers? How can these 20 members truly represent the issues of the rest of the members?

Additionally, as the dinner progressed in the ball room of Intercontinental hotel, right there in Nairobi, there is a foreign engineer who is busy at work, supervising and executing engineering projects. As Kenyan engineers are focused in board room meetings, planning, promising and procrastinating their targets in tangible engineering, the expatriate engineers are awarded major engineering contracts, getting things done, getting accolades in the industry and acceptance of the citizenry.

The announcement of the IEK Engineers' dinner

Can the Kenyan Engineer show evidence of a major contribution to the engineering fraternity? The Kenyan engineer has been relegated as a second class citizen, in their own country. Let me tell you how this has happened:

Scenario

A student joining university is advised to pursue an accredited engineering degree from an accredited university. After graduating, the next steps are the registration with the engineering institutions as a graduate engineer. This is the start of all the trouble. First, the graduate engineer cannot locate sufficient projects where he/she can be mentored. Even the current registered professional engineers do not trust the engineering system, since they are granted fewer and fewer opportunities, reason being that the expatriate engineers from Asia have taken over literally all engineering projects. Be it from manufacturing, infrastructure and of late, the real estate industry. The registered professional engineer is a frustrated fellow bearing a title Engineer, but even the county government cannot trust him/her with a grand project.

This frustration is passed on to the society, which now looks up to the Asians for expertise in engineering technology. So, the professional engineers are challenged in their area, can you imagine then the shattered dreams of the graduate engineers?

Coupled to this, the graduate engineer swims all alone in the sea of red tape, procedures and a maze of processes that are a hindrance towards registration as a professional engineer. This is a real spanner thrown in the works

No matter the number of engineering conferences we will hold, no matter the number of stakeholder meetings we have, so long as Kenyan engineers (both professional and graduate) are not involved in practical projects, the engineers are up to a major challenge to prove that they can compete with the expatriate engineers. That is why you will still pay for a Japanese engineer to travel all the way to install a lathe machine. The engineers in Kenya merely reduced to consumers of engineering products. 

Lessons to learn from India

A beautiful story is told about TATA industries in India. Back in the 90’s Mercedes Benz got into a contract with India to produce Mercedes Benz lorries due to the low labour cost that an Indian engineer and artisan would charge in manufacturing. At the end of the contract with Mercedes Benz, the Indian government ensured that all equipment that were used to manufacture the Mercedes trucks were left in India as the Germans headed back home. The next step that India took gave birth to TATA industries. The first TATA lorries were almost identical to the old Mercedes lorry. With the incorporation of the Indian engineers from the Mercedes factory, they mentored the production of TATA. This led to a progressive improvement of the TATA models and over time, TATA became an affordable truck for the Indians, then came the pick ups, and gradually came the saloon and the SUVs.
Right now, TATA is a favorite choice in Kenya for tipper trucks and buses. TATA even produced an affordable car for all citizens, the popular TATA Nano.

Can Kenya learn from this? Of course yes!!.

Kenyan engineers should be actively engaged in grand engineering projects, and have a way of retaining the technology used in the manufacturing process.  When the project is completed, the Kenyan engineer should take over, innovate and use the machinery, to produce their own Kenyan product.
Is it possible that in 10 years, Kenyan engineers should fabricate our own railway engine and the train tracks? or even have a Kenyan company performing the tunneling for the railway industry?

Would we need to be importing everything from Asia after running projects for 10years?

So, what do you say after reading this? Are you still gong to stay in the cocktails and ball rooms tossing glasses? Or are you going to step out and claim your position as an engineer?

Be bold. Act now...Claim your position….Kenyan engineer..

Eng. Luke Toroitich

ltoroitich@gmail.com