IEK & EBK tell counties to engage engineers
The collapse of part of a morgue under construction in Vihiga County brings to the fore the need to engage registered and licensed engineers in construction work. The Institution of Engineers of Kenya and the Engineers Board of Kenya are saddened by the loss of one life in the said incident that occurred on April 25, and extend our condolences to the bereaved family. We wish a quick recovery to all the 11 persons who were reported to have been injured.
We note that in a similar incident in February, a section of slab of a ward under construction at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital collapsed under construction. These incidents indicate a pattern of poor construction work in counties. Our own findings are that counties have not engaged qualified and registered engineers to design and supervise building structures in compliance with the law and the building code. Indeed, some counties do not have a single registered structural engineer in their employment.
All building plans are approved at the planning departments in the counties in compliance with the Physical and Land Use Planning Act. Counties should also comply with the building code. These approvals need to be done by registered and licensed structural engineers with a current licence from EBK. The engineers should also undertake regular inspections to make sure the quality of construction works is not compromised.
Where counties do not have internal capacity, they are encouraged to outsource these services and engage registered and licensed engineers as consultants to carry out the designs, design reviews for approval, and undertake regular inspections.
We urge all counties to engage qualified engineers to avoid these unnecessary collapses of buildings leading to the loss of lives and investment.
About EBK
The Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) is a statutory body established Section 3(1) of the Engineers Act 2011. The EBK is responsible for the registration of engineers and engineering firms, regulation of engineering professional services, setting of standards, development and the development of the general practice of engineering. The Board is committed to providing its stakeholders with high quality services in developing and regulating the engineering practice for a safe, efficient and effective engineering infrastructure systems and processes for Kenya.
About IEK
The Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) is the learned society of the engineering profession in Kenya. Its mission is to promote, encourage, and improve the application of Engineering, and other related practices. IEK has over 9,000 members drawn from engineers working in various government institutions (both national and county), consultancies, contractors, educators, designers, and manufacturers. One of the goals of the Institution is to disseminate knowledge and skills by holding talks where current and pertinent issues in all branches of engineering are discussed.