04/06/2025
Eng. Wesley Wyman Kaluba, President Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ)
Writes
As the national debate on Bill 7 continues to dominate public discourse, I rise—not as a politician, but as the President of the Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ), a body representing over 95,000 engineering professionals across this Republic.
For decades, engineers have remained on the sidelines of constitutional conversations, despite being central to national development.
The current constitutional review process, though marked by diverse legal and procedural views, presents a rare opportunity to confront a long-standing national oversight, the systemic exclusion of engineering, science, and technology from the foundational structures of governance.
*Engineering is The Backbone often Overlooked*
Let me be clear: Zambia cannot industrialize, modernize, or economically liberate itself without embedding engineering and technology into the heart of national governance. The Constitution is not just a legal document—it is a national blueprint. And right now, it tells the Zambian child that engineering is secondary to politics, law, or economics.
Where are the constitutional safeguards for science, innovation, and engineering capacity-building? Where are the provisions to ensure engineers have a seat at the table when infrastructure, energy, mining, manufacturing, or climate resilience policies are developed?
We have constitutional offices for economic planning, legal affairs, and communications. But we have no equivalent strategic post for engineering, science, or innovation.
Yet it is engineers who build the roads, power the homes, secure the water, design the hospitals, and maintain the telecommunications systems.
Does it not contradict logic and national interest to exclude this sector from the upper echelons of governance?
*Our Consistent Appeals Have Gone Unheeded*
The Engineering Institution of Zambia has, for more than 40 years, submitted policy and strategic papers calling for structural recognition of engineering in the public sector. We have proposed the establishment of advisory roles at State House and Cabinet level, including a Chief Technical Advisor on Engineering, Innovation, and Industrialization.
These proposals have been submitted formally—most recently through the Office of the Secretary to the Cabinet—but the responses have either been non-existent or dismissive.
This is not just an institutional slight; it is a development oversight that undermines the country’s ability to leverage its engineering talent for national progress.
*This Constitutional Review Must Correct a Structural Imbalance*
The current review process must be more than a political or electoral reform exercise. It must be a vehicle to embed long-term development priorities into our national legal framework. To that end, we propose the following constitutional considerations:
*1. Creation of a Constitutional Office for Engineering, Science & Innovation*, empowered to advise the Head of State and Parliament on infrastructure, industrialization, and technology policy.
*2. Inclusion of Registered Engineers in National Development Planning structures,* such as the National Planning Commission, to provide input on public sector projects and development strategies.
*3. Legal Mandate for Local Engineering Input in Public Procurement,* to strengthen local content and reduce reliance on external contractors.
*4. Constitutional Protection for Public Investment in Technical Education,* including predictable funding for engineering universities, vocational institutes, laboratories, and research centers.
*5. Requirement for Engineering Audits on Strategic Projects, to ensure public safety,* value-for-money, and resilience in national infrastructure.
*6. Affirmative action proposals such as protecting local content in engineering fields*—particularly in mining, construction, and infrastructure development—must be explicitly enshrined in the Republican Constitution, ensuring that Zambian engineers are not sidelined in favor of foreign firms and consultants.
These proposals are neither radical nor new. Several countries in Africa and beyond have adopted similar constitutional measures.
Rwanda, Ghana, and Kenya, for instance, have integrated scientific and engineering advisory structures into their governance models with measurable development results. Zambia cannot afford to be left behind.
*From Policy to Constitution, a Professional Call to Action*
This is not about political positioning. This is about national planning. It is about securing the Republic’s future by structurally recognizing those who are trained to build it.
Without constitutional provisions that protect, elevate, and embed engineering in governance, Zambia will continue to fall short of its industrialization goals.
Without legal recognition of technical capacity in leadership structures, we will continue to import what we should produce.
We will continue to repair what we should have prevented. We will continue to underperform where we could lead.
This must change.
*Moving Towards an Innovation-aware Constitution*
We urge the drafters of Bill 7, the Ministry of Justice and all stakeholders to view the Constitution not only as a legal tool—but as a developmental instrument.
Any modern constitution must make deliberate room for science, innovation, and engineering as national levers of transformation. Let this be the moment that Zambia chooses to be bold.
Let this be the moment that the engineer is finally given constitutional space to help build the Zambia we all envision.
Let this be the Constitution that future generations will thank us for—not for what it said, but for what it empowered us to do.
