How this Surveyor integrates Golf, Swimming & Farming into his routine

By Steve Umidha

Peter Kariuki’s daily routine is as complex as it is effective.

People who know him outside his work and business circle, also know that he is a fairly devoted fitness fan and ardent swimmer, and a committed crusader for health and well-being of people trapped in desk-bound jobs.

This was evident during my recent visit for a chat with him at his office on Ngong road to discuss the state of Kenya’s construction sector. Kariuki, who is the current Chairman of Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK), chose to use staircases instead of elevators for our meeting at the institute’s boardroom, and similarly walked back using them – I found this very rousing for a bloke his age.

He is way past his 40s now and tells me, “I occasionally walk, swim a few times a month and play Golf when an opportunity presents itself, golf is not what I do like most folks, I would do it when an occasion presents itself,” he opens up.

Kariuki, a surveyor by profession with over 20 years of practice, is a relatively unassuming father of four with a placid ‘pair of tonsils,’ whose accomplishments at the Institute cannot be overstated.

He joined the association as an ordinary member before climbing up the ranks to serve as a Registrar of IQSK for four years, went on to serve as a Vice-Chairman for a further four years and later as a Chairman where he is presently serving his second and final term in office.

And as IQSK marks its 25^th Anniversary this year, Mr. Kariuki who is also an agriculturalist and an active member of Rotary Club of Langata, has only one bold desire – to see Kenya’s construction sector primarily controlled by locals with at least 30 percent to be left to foreigners.

“It is my utmost desire and hope that this happens,” says a buoyant poultry and mixed crop farmer.

 

IQSK journey 25 years on

“It has not been easy because quantity surveyors then were housed under the umbrella Association of Architectural Association of Kenya and this was curtailing visibility because as the name suggest because then were also fewer in number and profession had not properly taken root in Kenya. So it made sense to be grouped with others,” he reveals.

And so according to him, it took about thirteen (13) members to “make the bold decision” and form an institute for Quantity Surveyors who were at the time seen as rebels, owing to their rogue resolution to hop from an existing association to form another.

That courageous move by the thirteen brave surveyors resonates with the words of Sun Tzu, who said “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”

With that hardheadedness, Kariuki says, the Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK) was born, albeit under a very toxic environment.

“We did it at the time the situation and conditions were not conducive, but again some of these things somebody must do them. It hasn’t been an easy journey starting out with 13 members who have since grown the institute to about 1,600 members today,” he says.

IQSK as it is currently structured, brings together professionals trained and registered to work as quantity surveyors in Kenya, whose existence is to advance the profession of quantity surveying by providing members with opportunities for professional development, and networking.

“It also serves other professionals in the building and construction industry and regulatory bodies by acting as the custodian of the interests of quantity surveyors in Kenya,” reads the institute’s “About Us” on its website.

Despite some of the milestones achieved thus far, Mr. Kariuki believes a lot more needs to be done if the country is to have a safe and a competitive build environment.

Of cause that would begin by clarifying the institute’s role to the ordinarily mwananchi, who perhaps would struggle to clearly understand the profession.

“There is a lot to be done still, not just on regulations but I agree our role is not quite understood by people down here. We are construction cost experts in terms of what we do in a project we start right from the budget stage and this we do right before you start the construction.

After other professions have done their work, the architects and engineers have done their drawing, they bring their work and prepare the bills of quantities to cost the building – this gives the exact cost of what your building is going to cost,” he narrates.

With this, he says, a quantity surveyor guides the owner of the construction to identify a construction expert with the information used to offer advisory services on the cost of a building from construction materials, construction foundation to the conclusion of a building.

“We do for you the final account, to reconcile the accounts to ensure you get value for your money. That role has not come out clearly to the ordinary Mwananchi,” admits Kariuki.

Lack of this information, he says has largely contributed to the notion that consultancy services on construction matters is expensive.

Other factors Kariuki, speaking as an industry expert, feels are holding back the sector’s growth is lack of stringent laws and regulations on offenders found culpable of putting up faulty constructions that have led to collapse of buildings.

Others include complex credit market, lack of proper management of public resources, long-term sector plans or goodwill as well as quacks that have assaulted the sector.

 

The Second part of this article will appear on mid-September 2019.