By Andrew Walyaula
waliaulaandre0@gmail.com
Egerton University has been accused of offering an unaccredited engineering course with three former students petitioning the National Assembly to investigate the matter.
David Okoti, Ian Nyaga, and Elvin Onyango said that they graduated in 2019 with Bachelor of Science in Water and Environmental Engineering, but their efforts to find job opportunities have been in vain as the course is not approved by Engineers Board of Kenya.
They lamented that it was not the first time to raise the issue as they shared the problem upon realization with the university between the period of 2014 and 2019.
This, raising concerns about the whereabouts and qualification status of other graduates who pursued the course in question that was first offered at the institution in the year 1997.
The university promised to accredit the course by 2015 after the students held a meeting with the management over the accreditation of the programme in 2014.
The petition indicates that by September 2015, no substantial communication had been made in regards to accreditation from the university management which prompted demonstrations that led to students being suspended indefinitely.
The university told them in 2018 that it had signed an agreement with Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to use its engineering facilities as it is accredited to offer the course, but that was not implemented.
Now, because they graduated with unaccredited course, they cannot be registered as engineers; thus cannot offer professional services.
Section 50 of the Engineers Act reads, “a person who is not registered as a professional engineer or firm hall not be entitled to submit engineering plans, surveys, drawings, schemes, proposals, reports, designs, or studies to any person or authority in Kenya.”
The petition haunts the university to be compelled to enroll for the required remedial unit, at no cost, since they were required to take extra eight remedial units to be certified. This will enable them to upgrade their degrees to the accredited Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The law makers have also been requested to look into why Egerton continues to offer the course despite knowing its accreditation status.
The petition further seeks the parliament to compel the immediate cessation of enrolment of students to the programme and make any other recommendations the Committee may deem fit in addressing the plight of the petitioners.
