More than 100 engineering graduates of Technical University of Kenya (TUK) have taken the Engineers Board of Kenya to court, over failure to register and issue them with licences to practice.
The 116 petitioners accused the board of denying them an opportunity to secure employment, over failure to recognise their degrees and register them as engineers.
The graduates have faulted the board for refusing them registration on the premise of the naming or wording of the degree programme, without taking into account the substance of the degree, which is the same as that in Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Science in Engineering.
The petitioners were conferred degrees in civil engineering, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering.
“The lack of registration and licensing as engineers has denied and continue to deny the petitioners an opportunity to secure employment either in public or private practice,” the petition stated.
The petitioners led by Shadrack Nyaanga, Kennedy Ondera and Julius Ndambuki, said the degree courses were first introduced at TUK in 2009, then known as Kenya Polytechnic University College.
After graduating, the petitioners said they applied for licences to practice in the respective fields but the board failed to register them. They said the board verbally communicated the decision to refuse them registration.
It is their argument that the decision is arbitrary, oppressive, insensitive, and discriminatory, lacks merit and a violation of their rights to legitimate expectation of registration upon completion of training.
They pointed out that the Engineers Act states that a person shall be eligible for registration under the Act as a graduate engineer, if that person holds a degree in engineering from a recognised university or such other qualification as the board may determine.
“The Engineers Act recognises all persons holding a degree in engineering from a recognised university is eligible for registration and does not discriminate any person holding an engineering degree merely on the wording of their degree or programme."
They said the curriculum used to teach and train both the Bachelor of Technology in Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering students at TUK was approved and accredited by the University’s Senate and Commission for University Education (CUE).
Students pursuing both courses, they added, underwent similar training, were taught by the same lecturers, used similar laboratories and even sat the same exams administered by TUK.
They said they had legitimate expectation at the time of enrollment into the programme that they would graduate as engineers and subsequently eligible for registration as graduate engineers.
They want the court to issue a declaration that they are qualified engineers under Section 18 of the Engineers Act. They are also seeking court order, to compel the Board to register them as engineers.
