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{
"id": 585032,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/585032/?format=api",
"text_counter": 17,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Ngetich",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 511,
"legal_name": "Cecilia Chelangat Ngetich",
"slug": "cecilia-chelangat-ngetich"
},
"content": "While engineers, who form a sub-sector of the engineering profession, are regulated through the Engineers Act by the Engineers Board of Kenya, the engineering technologists and technicians remain unregulated and yet, those different cadres work closely together. Just to expound further on how those professions relate to one another, engineers, for example, are designers. They can, for example, design a phone and state its measurements. Then the technologists will come in to put that design into a physical object. When that physical object needs some repair, the technician comes in to repair. So, they work together and they are closely related. It is also good to note that prior to 2011 before the Engineers Act was repealed, it had a small clause that acknowledged technicians with a Higher National Diploma from Kenya Polytechnic and equivalent institutions. When that Act was amended in 2012, that section was deleted, thus leaving out the engineering technologists and technicians. Therefore, I decided to bring this Bill because as we all know that it is best practice to regulate professional bodies. In Kenya, we have more than 19 professional bodies which have their regulatory bodies. One reason why we need to regulate professions is to promote public welfare by safeguarding health and property. I want you to reflect on the several scenarios that we have seen. Houses have been collapsing and killing people. Of course, property is being lost. Once the architects have done their work, when it comes to the real building, since the contractor will want to construct at the minimal cost, he will hire those who have learnt masonry and carpentry on the job without necessarily having the requisite professional competences or skills. Therefore, those people do not stick to the standards that are required. When such a building collapses, you cannot sue anyone. The architect will say that he did his part, he drew the design very well and it is up to the person who was constructing. Secondly, this is also to protect the public from exploitation. Those who are employed in the building industry are really exploited. Graduates from our youth polytechnics and vocational centres will be recognized as having that particular skill and instead of being paid Ksh250 per day, they will get their rightful payment according to the standards that are expected. For example, Kshs1,000 per day as per the regulations. This also provides for uniformity in content and practice. How will you know the standards that are required if there is no specialised body to determine the standards and the quality of work that is to be done? Therefore, the profession can be regulated if it has a distinct area of practice. In this case, we all know the education system has been reformed. We have two pathways and one can choose to take the academic pathway or the technical education pathway. So, since this has a significant training in education, it looks into the competence of every member before they are registered. That means that if you are looking for a mason or a carpenter, you will be told the kind of qualifications they should have. Professional associations come in to set qualifications and competency standards for its members. As I speak, comparatively, if we look at the global practice, many countries have adopted this system where the various cadres are registered separately. For example, Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America (USA), Malaysia and South Africa have different registers for engineers, engineering technologists and engineering technicians. For example, Nigeria has a council which is an umbrella body and below it, there are separate regulatory bodies for the separate cadres of engineers. In Kenya, we have similar situations. I can cite the medical profession which has even gone down to break it further. While in engineering we can term this as regulating the profession, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}