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Engineers ask MPs to amend 54-year-old law
Debris of a storied building on Plot 17 Gokhale road in Jinja City on January 15 2020 that left six people dead. PHOTOS | TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- Eng Andrew Muhwezi, the President of UIPE, says the government must expedite the amendment process of the Engineers’ Registration Act (2012), with the aim of ensuring better regulation of the sector.
The Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) has asked Parliament to expedite the amendment of the 1969 Act to reduce the number of lives lost during shoddy construction works.
Eng Andrew Muhwezi, the President of UIPE, says the government must expedite the amendment process of the Engineers’ Registration Act (2012), with the aim of ensuring better regulation of the sector.
According to him, the Act is “too outdated” to cater for the current and emerging challenges that affect the profession.
“The law that regulates the practice of engineering has some weaknesses; we are dealing with a law that was enacted in 1969. The government should expedite the amendment process of the Engineers’ Registration Act (2012) which will weed out quack engineers,’’ he said.
The Engineers were speaking in Jinja City during the Waligo Memorial Lecture, an annual event aimed at remembering the former Prime Minister of Uganda, Eng Abraham Nkalubo Waligo, who was also the first Electrical Engineer in East and Central Africa.
The Engineers’ request comes in the wake of the collapse of buildings, bridges and roads before their lifespan due to unregistered engineers.
Road construction on Eng Dhikusooka Road. Some roads tear off very fast before their intended life span due to fake engineers
According to Eng Muhwezi, an amendment to the Engineers’ Registration Act (2012) will compel all engineers to have a practising certificate so that sanity can prevail in the sector.
While data from the Uganda Engineering Registration Board indicates that only 1,642 engineers out of 20,000 are registered, UIPE records show that there are over 5,000 engineers countrywide, with only 2,000 being registered.
Eng Muhwezi further cited using untested materials, inadequate supervision of developers and side-stepping the advice of engineers as some of the reasons for the collapse of infrastructure.
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