Engineer Sam Mambo
Born some 55 years ago, in Kirinyaga, Kenya, Engineer Sam Mambo attained his Bachelors degree in civil engineering from the University of Nairobi in 1978, thereafter in 1982 he pursued his Masters in highway engineering from the university of Birmingham in the UK.Currently he is pursuing an MBA at the United States International University in Nairobi.
Mr. Mambo is a registered engineer with the Kenya Engineers Registration Board. The Director of GIBB Africa Ltd is also a member of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya, and the chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Institute of Highways and Transportation (UK).
Engineering is a great career. Engineers may not be the most highly paid professionals and they may not even be highly regarded in society but it is an undisputable fact that engineers hold the key to most problems facing society. Construction Review interviewed Engineer Sam Mambo.
The Firm
GIBB Africa Ltd (formerly Sir Alexander GIBB and Partners) and associated companies was founded in the early 1940s. The firm which is a 100 percent Kenyan company, has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, but has operations in the following additional African countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Sierra Leone and Gabon. Currently GIBB has a staff complement of 220. Of these 65 of them are civil and structural engineers, 8 electrical engineers, 6 mechanical engineers, 11 irrigation engineers, 8 architects and quantity surveyors, 7 topographical surveyors/GIS experts, 9 environmental scientists, 74 CAD technicians and 32 finance and administrative staff.
Projects
Recently completed projects of GIBB Africa Ltd include the 70 km long Wote-Makindu Road (Kenya), Cyangugu – Bugarama Road (Rwanda), Busunju – Kiboga – Hoima Road (Uganda), Massawa Causeway (Eritrea) and Roads 2000 in North Rift (Kenya) – Training labour-based contractors and supervision of works. Mr. Mambo was the Project Director for all these projects.
Each of the above projects had unique challenges. For instance, Wote-Makindu Road that cost about US$ 24million, traverses major seasonal rivers that required major bridges that were constructed on piles due to poor in situ soils. The 145 km Busunju-Kiboga-Hoima Road, that cost approximately US$32million crosses large swamps and construction of drainage structures in these swamps was extremely difficult, particularly due to the fact that the contractor was perpetually having cash flow problems, whether he was paid for work done or not.
In addition, the contractor’s equipment was old and many a time unserviceable. The 1.5km Causeway in Eritrea cost approximately US$3million. Construction in the Red Sea was difficult since the contractor was inexperienced in aquatic construction, climate was hostile and importation of goods and materials were subject to inflexible government restrictions.
- Some of the active projects are:
- Wajir – Mandera Road – This is a 390km road in the North-eastern part of Kenya. GIBB was commissioned by the Ministry of Roads (Kenya) to do a preliminary and detailed engineering design. Working in hostile climate (extremely hot) and in an area where bandit attacks are common has been difficult. Water and good quality construction materials are scarce. The road shall be tendered in 3 different contracts. The design and tender documents are expected to ready in the next two months. Ministry of Roads is shopping for willing financiers for the project.
- Sirth – Benghazi Railway (Libya): This is the largest project currently being handled by GIBB. It is about 500 km long and the line passes entirely through the Sahara Desert and there are difficult sections that present enormous engineering challenges due to poor in situ soils. Water, other than the salty Mediterranean Sea water, is unavailable. GIBB is working for a Russian Contractor and language is a major challenge. GIBB staff cannot speak Russian or Arabic that is spoken by the local people.
- Athi – River Namanga Road (136 km)(Kenya) – Construction supervision
- Emali – Oloitoktok Road (100 km)(Kenya) - Construction supervision
- Isiolo – Merille River Road (136 km) (Kenya) - Construction supervision
- New Bugesera International Airport (Rwanda)- Design
- Isaka – Kigali – Bujumbura Railway: Feasibility Study
Challenges
There is unreasonable competition. Here jobs are often awarded to the cheapest bidders who have no capacity or the skills to carry out the projects. For consultants to be awarded engineering projects, either to design or supervise construction, they have to submit both technical and financial proposals.
A close look at most Terms of Reference, particularly for road projects, one finds that the key personnel must have good academic qualifications and be highly experienced. Such professionals do not come cheap. However, you often find consultants being awarded high technical scores but when financial proposals are opened, their prices are one third or a half of other consultants.
When a company presents highly qualified staff and bids low, it means that it has no intention of using the experienced staff named in its proposal but will substitute these qualified staff with less experienced and cheaper staff. In addition, you often find companies giving totally unrealistic prices for exercises such as survey and materials investigations.
The intention of such companies is to do minimal survey which is often inadequate for a competent design. The poor consultant who proposes competent and experienced staff and gives realistic charge rates for such staff and for survey and materials investigations, loses the job. This is unfair competition.
There is also a shortage of qualified staff, in particular engineers. Between 1990 and about 2001, Kenya was receiving very little donor money for infrastructure development. In addition little internally generated revenue was going into infrastructure. So key ministries such as Ministry of Roads that used to train a large number of engineers was not employing fresh graduates from the universities.
Furthermore, many companies, both contractors and consultants were only taking few engineers due to the limited workload. As a consequence, a good number of engineers ended up joining financial institutions or doing other post graduate courses totally unrelated to engineering. This created a gap that is now being felt when the construction industry is booming.
Corruption is experienced at different levels. Procurement for consultancy services is often not transparent. It is not unusual to see a consultant who has no capacity at all being commissioned to-do a major project.
Even after commissioning, it often takes an eternity to get paid due to bureaucracy and corruption in the public sector. A consultant fulfils his part of the deal and submits the required deliverables. When he submits fee notes, they can take 6 – 12 months before they are paid. Today GIBB has fee notes it has been following with a government ministry that were submitted and approved in 2005! Solutions to Challenges Encountered.
At Gibb we wrestle unreasonable competition by targeting high value jobs, which the small firms have little chance of being short-listed in. In addition, we have ventured into new markets where there is limited local capacity. Also by recruiting staff from other countries, particularly Ethiopia and India and by training the new graduates further helps us curb the shortage of qualified staff challenge.
“It is very satisfying as I see my contribution benefit the society. One of the projects that gave me the most satisfaction is construction of Sotik – Amara River Road. I was in the construction supervision team on this road that passes an area of high agricultural potential. Before the road was constructed to an all-weather state, it could take one up to 3 hours from Amara River to Sotik during the rainy season, a distance of only 56 km.
The most painful thing was to see a truck full of drums of milk getting stuck for hours. Often the milk would go to waste. Agricultural products, livestock and poultry in the interior were unreasonably cheap since farmers could not easily access the markets. All this changed when the road was bituminised in 1991” said Mr Mambo.
To the young upcoming professionals the engineer asks them to uphold professional ethics, work hard, embrace continuous career development and the sky will be the limit!It is not all work and no play for this engineer he loves exercising regularly. “I do aerobics 3 times a week, swimming once a week and gym workouts once a week. I am a good team player and associate easily with all kinds of people regardless of their status in society” added Sam.
In his concluding statement Engineer Mambo had this to say: I have never regretted choosing engineering as my career. As I sit in my office, walk in the streets, dive into a swimming pool, drive along rural roads, enjoy a cup of tea in my house and finally take a well-deserved rest on my bed, I see an Engineer’s hand in virtually everything around me. I am proud to belong to such a profession that has added so much value to life!
