FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
Mtito-Andei section of the Standard Gauge Railway. Today, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is easily Kenya’s biggest employer outside Government, with a staff roll that includes at least 25,000 locals and 2,000 Chinese employees working from at least nine sites. PHOTO | FILE

Mtito-Andei section of the Standard Gauge Railway. Today, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is easily Kenya’s biggest employer outside Government, with a staff roll that includes at least 25,000 locals and 2,000 Chinese employees working from at least nine sites. PHOTO | FILE  

In Summary

  • The 2,000 Chinese workers on the project are mostly engineers and managers. They are managerial personnel, engineers and experienced technicians with demonstrable expertise in railway engineering.
  • In what is a first for similar projects in Kenya, the firm has set up a training facility at Voi, Taita Taveta County to further push the technology transfer agenda. 
  • The firm has been in Kenya for about three decades during which it handled a number of key infrastructure jobs among them a project at the Port of Mombasa and the construction of the Southern Bypass.
By DN2 TEAM

Less than two years after it broke ground on Kenya’s most ambitious infrastructure project, the company tapped to build the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has emerged as the country’s biggest employer.

Today, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is easily Kenya’s biggest employer outside Government, with a staff roll that includes at least 25,000 locals and 2,000 Chinese employees working from at least nine sites. And this global figure excludes the thousands of Kenyans that are probably earning a livelihood because their firms or employers have been contracted to supply the many goods and services that are required to bring the project to fruition.

But the stark differences among the employees on the project do not start and end with nationality and the unique challenges these present in crafting a cohesive and efficient team. There is also the fact that the employees themselves strut every available level on the skills ladder, not to forget that they are also products of different levels of education and cultures.

The 2,000 Chinese workers on the project are mostly engineers and managers. They are managerial personnel, engineers and experienced technicians with demonstrable expertise in railway engineering.

TRAINING RECRUITS

These would typically include railway bridge engineers, rail transit and architectural engineers. On the other hand, Kenyans working on the SGR project occupy every level on the skills’ continuum; from the most skilled engineer to the unskilled labourer.

A unique challenge that the contractor has had to grapple with is the dearth of expertise on railway line engineering in Kenya. This is understandable for the simple fact that since the British colonialists built the metre gauge, so-called Lunatic Express line from Mombasa to Kisumu, independent Kenyan never engaged in any material addition to the existing railway infrastructure. Today, one would be hard pressed to find a Kenyan engineer or even a technician with hands-on, modern railway building experience.

But this is likely to change once the SGR is completed and commissioned. At least the CRBC is making sure of that in its implementation of the project.

“Some employees may have certificates in certain skills, but we often find a mismatch between these qualifications and the requirements of the SGR project…In such cases, we normally have the recruits trained by our technicians and engineers before they can take up their posts. Through this, we are effecting knowledge transfer and the development of local capacity, key objectives of the contract between us and the Government,” said Julius Li, who is External Relations and Cooperation Manager for CRBC on the project.

Through this policy of “train first and deploy later,” CRBC is actively doing knowledge transfer from China to Kenya and the development of local capacity, which are key objectives of the contract it signed with the Government of Kenya as the SGR contractor.

In what is a first for similar projects in Kenya, the firm has set up a training facility at Voi, Taita Taveta County to further push the technology transfer agenda. The school is an avenue for up-skilling the employees in practical aspects of their work, besides giving them theoretical knowledge.

So, how is the CRBC dealing with the challenges of having such a huge and culturally and intellectually diverse group of employees to ensure they deliver on the brief?

MULTI - CULTURAL WORKFORCE

For starters, it helps that the firm has been in Kenya for about three decades during which it handled a number of key infrastructure jobs among them a project at the Port of Mombasa and the construction of the Southern Bypass.

While it is true that this has given the contactor some useful institutional memory, Mr Li will be the first to admit that nothing really prepared them for the sheer enormity and scale of the SGR assignment.

 “The huge workforce in itself is a great challenge from a human resource management perspective, not to mention the fact that these workers come from different countries, speak different languages and have different educational backgrounds. Though we have been in Kenya for over three decades and have accumulated rich experience in management of local workers, such a great number of workers in a single project is a first, even for us,” he noted.

According to Mr Li, one of the things that has stood CRBC in good in the management of its human resource capacity is a deliberate policy of localisation as much possible in orientation as well as actual deployment of workers.

“We will continue to localise management, to let our Chinese staff integrate into the work and life of Kenyans, and also make our Kenyan staff to be proud of our company and deliver the project to Kenyans as expected,” he said.