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{
    "id": 585043,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/585043/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 28,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kobado",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2964,
        "legal_name": "John Owuor Onyango Kobado",
        "slug": "john-owuor-onyango-kobado"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I want to congratulate my colleague, Hon. (Ms.) Ngetich, for taking a bold step to move this Bill. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, between Kenya and Vision 2030, stands this Bill. Technology must be embraced because industrilisation must be technology-driven. There are certain elements we must look at before allowing this Bill to go through. It is important to clearly show the difference between engineering and engineering technology. Engineering and engineering technology are separate but very closely related professional areas. The difference between engineering and technology is in the curriculum focus. Engineers are trained to be thinkers, that is, to conceptualise and design, whereas technologists are trained to be deliverers of technology or engineering items. They are trained to have technical skills and to perform the process of creating products. The tangible outcome of an engineer is a design which comes in form of a drawing. The tangible outcome of a technologist or a technician is a physical product and it could be a building, a road, a window or any tangible product of any material. Therefore, those two professions are under the broad professional area called the engineering profession. Therefore, they need to work together. I want to agree with the Mover that the world has become a global village to the extent that best practices elsewhere are readily adopted. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. If you find that certain practices have been accepted elsewhere, then we should readily adopt them. All we need to do is domesticate them. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we need to look at the issue of regulation in this industry. This Bill is coming at a very opportune time when the industry it is supposed to regulate is in crisis. Let us look at the construction and the manufacturing industry. In the construction industry, more than 50,000 buildings in Nairobi had to be demolished for failing to meet the quality standards. This information about those buildings is with the City Hall in Nairobi. They are in areas like Embakasi, Kasarani, Lang’ata and Ruai. When I knew this Bill was coming up, I did a bit of research in this area. A six storey building behind Thika Road collapsed killing seven people and injuring several others. A five storey residential building partly occupied and still under construction collapsed in Kaloleni killing seven people and injuring several others. Another building collapsed in Huruma killing five people and injuring several others. There was also a building that collapsed in Roysambu killing several people. We need to regulate this industry. The Governor of Nairobi has given an order that all buildings in Nairobi be audited for integrity and quality. Much as they are saying this, who is to blame at the end of the day? As I said earlier, it is the responsibility of the engineer and the architect to think, conceptualise, design, and produce that idea in form of a drawing. The work of an engineer ends there. The person who is supposed to oversee the construction of the building is the technologist assisted by the technicians and artisans at a lower level. Those people need to comply. The architects and the structural engineers should approve the buildings. Once they do so, we need another regulator to see if we are doing the right thing. The developers would want to get their work done at the cheapest possible cost. So, we do not have technicians and technologists constructing buildings. The buildings are constructed by quacks masquerading as engineers, technologists and technicians. We need to clean up the industry. The only way that can be done is by allowing the particular technologists and technicians to regulate their own industry. We can borrow this from other professions as the hon. Member said earlier. The medical profession is well regulated. The 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."
}