Kenya Engineering and Technology Registration Board (KETRB) is seeking funding to enable the agency achieve its mandate in regulating the construction industry.
KETRB board chair Alice Mutai said the housing industry has been challenged with unregistered technicians, technologists, and artisans making it impossible to prosecute those at fault in the case of a collapsed building.
“For a long time the industry has had unprofessional and unregistered workers and becomes hard for the government to track culprits in such disasters,” Mutai said.
The agency is still optimistic it will receive a kitty fund on top of Sh100 million allocated by the National Treasury in the current financial year.
With the recent case being the caving in of a parking space in Ruaka in May, collapsed buildings have been a frequent news item over the past few years leaving scores dead and hundreds injured.
Last year, Building Inspectorate secretary Moses Nyakiongora said more than 5,000 houses have been audited by a multi-sectoral team, of which 640 were found to be unsafe for occupation. Only 34 of the unfit buildings have been brought down in the last year.
Mutai said the disasters are mostly caused by poor regulations and assessment, and risks taken by uncertified persons linked to building owners making it hard to prosecute the culprits.
KETRB also hopes to formulate strict application of building regulations by the state and to prosecute developers, owners, and builders who fail to adhere to the regulations prescribed by law.
The board was formed under Engineering Technology Act No 23 of 2016 to become a different arm in the industry alongside Engineers Registration Board.
The main body mainly targets engineers and quantity surveyors.
However, in 2018 the board found itself on the wrong side of the law when it was required to register hundreds of students who graduated with engineering degrees from three universities eight years ago within 21 days.
In the wake of increased real estate development, the government in January, held a workshop involving stakeholders to present Kenya Building Regulatory Capacity Assessment (BRCA) and identify gaps in the building regulatory reform.
The assessment to be carried out over in the next three years will push for local implementation and have mechanisms in place to administer building and land use laws.
