The Kenyan construction paradox

Posted By: Fundi Mjanja on 23rd of November 2012

Njenga is a distinguished accountant, competent in his work, liked by his colleagues and cares for his family. He works in an auditing firm in the city and is a stickler to time and professionalism. He highly esteems professional advice and he will be found consulting with his children’s teachers on a regular basis so as to ensure that the next generation of the Njenga dynasty can have a solid footing on life. Njenga also belongs to several investment clubs where through meticulous planning and consultations with financial experts, he and his buddies have accumulated sizeable tracts of land in upcoming satellite towns of the ever expanding Nairobi metropolis. Why, pray tell, do we find Njenga shouting his lungs hoarse in an unfinished building on one of his plots in the outskirts of the city on this bright sunny Saturday morning? To answer this question perhaps you should allow me to take you back to the genesis of Njenga the building contractor. Njenga always harboured the dream of becoming a real estate magnate in the city and during his early years as an accounts student, when money was less and he was struggling in college, he worked as a casual labourer in a construction site in downtown Nairobi. Within a few weeks, his enthusiasm for work and his book keeping skills earned him the position of the store keeper at the site. With the position he could afford the opportunity to walk around the site with the site foreman and see the different trade’s workmen at work in diverse trades like plumbing, masonry, electrical installation etc. He kept his store keeper position until the project was completed and by then he had managed to secure a position as an intern in a firm, a position that catapulted him to becoming a much sought after accountant. During his training and work at the site, he was neither an apprentice in any of the diverse building trades like carpentry, painting, masonry nor did he ever have any formal training in the more professional aspects of construction like architecture, draughtsmanship, estimation & costing, surveying or project management. The closest he got to construction know how was the few months he spent as a casual labourer and book keeper at the construction site. Within a few years of working as an accountant, Njenga managed to save enough money through a Sacco and qualified for a loan that enabled him acquire his first piece of land. He got further funding from the banks when both he and his wife applied for loans that allowed them to put up a block of flats. Armed with the exposure he got from the construction site, the funds and zeal to get rich, Njenga was now his own building contractor. Actually, not only was he the client but he was also the chief designer of the building having copied the designs from a brochure of a leading real estate company in the city. He only edited the designs to suit his needs. This was fairly easy for him; after all what one needs is a computer and creativity to design a house, or so he thought. This was after he failed to see eye to eye with a young architect he had hired. He felt that professionals in the industry were over paid and too theoretical in their approach to construction. After all everyone knows that actual construction happens in dusty and noisy sites and not in posh upmarket offices where the architects work, right? Njenga being a practical guy, who knows that if you want a job done well, you need to do it yourself, chose to double up as the procurement manager and paid for all the materials used at the site. This ensured that he could control costs at the site as well as ensure that pilferage was minimal. He therefore did the project on his own terms. He got one of his relatives from the village to be his foreman and point man at the site. He refused to engage a building contractor ignoring the advice of the architect. Njenga felt that this was an unnecessary cost that he could avoid. His building plans were not done by an architect and therefore not approved by the local council; he could easily get away with this, after all only large companies with money to splash engage architects and have approved drawings. The local council was after all understaffed and they did not have enough building inspectors to inspect all the construction projects in the area. If the worst came to the worst and being the practical street smart guy that he was, he could pay a small bribe to the building inspectors to look the other way. Njenga figured that the savings from not engaging professionals in his project would herald his entry into the world of real estate. The flip side of all this is that Njenga would dutifully follow the advice of other professionals. If by chance any member of his family fell sick and after consultation with the doctor, the specialist scribbled a few illegible words as prescription, like all good doctors do, he would rush to the nearest chemist and purchase the drugs. He would trust the pharmacist to dispense the right drugs, as well as the instructions concerning the times for taking the drugs. He would neither haggle about the price of the drugs nor would he consult a friend of who had suffered a similar ailment and copy his prescription. He would also not Google the illness and download a prescription from the search results. He would also expect his clients to unquestioningly follow the advice that he would regularly dispense to them as part of his duties as an accountant. He would also expect his children to devotedly complete the assignments given to them by their teachers who are professionals in preparation for exams. The fact is; advice from construction professionals in Kenya is the most disregarded counsel available. Heck, advice from self styled television soccer analysts who show up on the T.V. screen during half time to tell us the obvious and sorcerers treating all manner of maladies; from cancer to winning elections are sadly, taken more seriously. Most collapsed buildings in Kenya have one thing in common. The client is usually the contractor. The typical Kenyan would rather cut corners when constructing his house so as to save some money at the expense of safety of the occupants, durability of the structure and cost of later repairs. And this is the reason as to why we find Njenga the accountant barking orders to his workers at the construction site on this bright and sunny Saturday morning. Any person with inadequate construction training who contracts himself to build his house so as save on cost, has a fool for a client. Till next time, keep well and keep safe. Fundi Mjanja.