It is next to impossible for an unlicensed medicine graduate to be allowed to treat patients in any health facility in Rwanda. Or for an unlicensed law graduate to ligate cases. However, there are other important professions where requirements for accreditations continue to be flouted. One of them is engineering. While the law prohibits anyone who’s not accredited from practising, it is thought that the majority of engineering graduates continue to operate illegally. This is despite the fact that the law requires all engineers to be members of the Institution of Engineers Rwanda (IER), a professional body charged with promoting and developing best practices in the engineering sector, which has been in place since 2008. The law itself has been in existence for nearly 10 years. Nonetheless, to date, just over 2700 engineers are recognised IER members and, therefore, the only ones legally permitted to practise, meaning that unlicensed practitioners remain very much active, sometimes with dire consequences. To belong to a professional body like IER means more than just accreditation as members commit to a set of professional standards, prudential guidelines and ethics, thereby enhancing safety and sustainable practices across the different engineering trades. Furthermore, such membership comes with a range of additional opportunities such as experience sharing with peers in and outside the country, career training opportunities, greater exposure, among others. The engineering body has since decried the fact that some of the unlicensed practitioners continue to be engaged by public institutions, which undermines the spirit of the law as well as efforts to reverse the trend. However, there has been some progress in recent years, including licensing electricians after the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) launched a crackdown on unaccredited practitioners. Unauthorised engineers are also increasingly finding it difficult to win or get involved with public tenders, forcing many to seek accreditation. Unlicensed practitioners have largely been blamed for engineering errors and disasters and it’s, therefore, critical that everyone, from public institutions to individual developers and members of the public, play their part in stopping them.
