Agency urged to streamline construction sector

The Kenya Construction Authority (KCA) has been urged to crack down on cartels in the real estate sector.

Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi regretted that corruption has led unprofessional individuals to infiltrate the construction industry denying Kenyans quality services.

"The existence of the cartels in the sector is pulling back the county's development efforts since shoddy jobs are done as a result of graft," said Mwangangi. 

He said it beats logic to see a building constructed more than 100 years ago still intact but another that was put up a year ago or less coming down due to sub-standard work.

"Let's join efforts to ensure the cartels that compromise quality work in the construction sector are no more," Mwangangi said during a five-day Multi-Sectoral Agency Consultative Committee Working Retreat in Mombasa. 

Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome called for a public works policy to rid the sector of unqualified individuals behind collapse of buildings.

Wahome regretted that professionals in the sector had allowed their names to be misused and said inspection of buildings should be a collective responsibility to eliminate the entrenched cartels.

The CS urged county governments to join hands with the ministry in efforts to streamline the construction sector and emphasized the need to leverage technology to set standards for valuable and quality work.