It’s a girl’s world in building and construction

Growing up, Anne Ikenye, now 24, wanted to become a doctor. An incident in high school however made her shelve this ambition.

“A friend got seriously injured, and the sight of all that blood scared me. I realised then that I could never become a doctor,” she says.

After this, she went through a difficult time trying to decide which career to pursue, since medicine was out of the question.

“I considered interior design, but at the same time I wanted to become an architect. Furthermore, I was extremely good in Physics and thought a career as an engineer would suit me. I wanted to be everything!”

Fast forward to today; her current career as a senior partner with Pacific Realty, based in Ruai, Nairobi, allows her to indulge in all her passions.

“I coordinate the entire building process, from the initial planning and budgeting through to the final coat of paint on the last wall. This gives me the opportunity to be an interior designer, an engineer, an architect and more, all wrapped into one with a ribbon on it,” she says.

She may sound content, but Anne is quick to admit that her career journey so far has been as laborious and as exhausting as the building process. She began by studying a bachelor’s degree in construction management at the University of Nairobi and was accepted alongside 50 other students. Only eight were women.

“I knew from the start that I was going into a male-dominated field. I did not feel intimidated at all by all the testosterone around. I felt that I could handle the course just as well as my male classmates. As a matter of fact, this only motivated me to work harder.”

LESS THAN 30

Out of the 50 students who were initially admitted to her class, less than 30 managed to graduate four years later. This, Anne explains, is because the course required a level of commitment and discipline that many of the students lacked. Despite that, she managed to graduate with first class honours.

Anne’s associate, 24-year-old Daniel Chege Mburu, also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in construction management from The University of Nairobi. He recalls the long hours that he and his fellow students spent at the school’s design studio learning to design edifices, often sacrificing time that would have been spent socialising.

When asked why he chose a career  in construction, Daniel says that he always intended to become a civil engineer. However, his dream did not come to pass and so he settled for construction management.

Now a year into the job, Daniel says that he is happy with how things turned out. Pacific Realty is the first firm that he has worked with since graduation, and he is still learning the ropes of the industry under

the tutelage of Anne and other senior partners at the contracting firm.

Anne has previously worked with  companies in the construction industry such as ORAD Group and Cytonn Investments. She managed a few projects for Pacific Realty on a freelance basis before the firm decided to absorb her and take her in as a partner.

TOUGH START

“Starting out in the industry for me was a bit tough,” she remembers. “Some firms refused to hire me simply because I am a woman, in spite of the fact that I was qualified. One prospective employer even told me that the construction field is a “man’s world.”

Even after she landed her first few jobs, Anne still felt segregated as some colleagues and workers denied her the respect she deserved due to her gender. “People are not used to seeing women at a construction site and they can get quite jittery if they discover that the women is actually the boss. I wish more women would take up careers in construction and engineering.”

With Daniel as Anne’s assistant, the duo is often in charge of about 60 workers at any one time. Managing such a workforce, Daniel points out, requires a savvy approach rather than an forceful one.

“Here, you can always do better if you make everyone under you do their jobs better. I would say having good communication skills is the most important ability that a construction manager needs to possess. You will constantly be in communication with your team and clients to ensure that the different facets of construction go in tandem,” says Daniel.

One of the factors that put off many Kenyans from building their own homes is the agonising hustle that comes from dealing with construction workers. Many aspiring home owners end up opting for the expensive option of purchasing homes, unaware that there’s a third option of hiring professional construction managers to do the job for you. “I would say that in this line of work, accountability and honesty are values that will help you save a lot of money. By hiring honest site managers (foremen) and keeping a close eye on the materials, we are able to bring down the cost of construction to as low as Sh1.6 million for a three-bedroom master ensuite bungalow,” Daniel explains.

NOT ALL PEACHES AND CREAM

Both Anne and Daniel admit that the job is not all peaches and cream, particularly when dealing with difficult clients. A three-bedroom maisonette, which typically takes 12 weeks to complete, can create friction between the construction manager and his client for various reasons. Daniel explains; “The most difficult part of my job is when we are near completion but have to step back from the project because the client has defaulted on his commitment to pay.”

For a construction manager, learning is a continuous life-long process that begins with graduating from university. As Anne explains, most of the organisational, budgeting and design work is done with complicated software that changes rapidly. As such, a construction manager should always be updated on the latest technological trends in the industry.

“My greatest joy,” Daniel says, “is the satisfaction I get from seeing that a project I conceptualised together with a client has developed to a house they can live in. My proudest moments are when I hand over the keys to a satisfied client who walked into our offices just weeks before.”