 Man himself, he has quite a CV, and let's first of all get to know Kupolo Nino East, the engineer himself, okay? So Amoe, you are a lecturer? Yes, I'm a lecturer at the Zittek University, under the public universities, and I'm also working with the Kenyapawa under contractual basis. So those are my areas of specialization. How did you get interest in this line of work? Now I got interested in this line of work when I was still at primary school, and I can remember when I was schooling at Harambu Primary School in Kabonyokanyagual, the primary school was not having good infrastructure, and then there was a time when somebody came to electrify those buildings, and I want to state categorically that that was the point when I became very interested in engineering activity. You say someone do it and you love the AI, so someone doing electrifying the building, the old building, and that was when I was in standard 6 during that time, and I got very interested in how the electrification was taking place, and from that point I got interested in pursuing engineering as a career, and specifically electrical engineering. Electrical engineering? Yes, because engineering is very wide. Is wide? Is very wide. In fact it has branches from A to Z, starting with aeronautical engineering, with the letter A and up to Z. So we have a very wide profession called engineering. So if someone wants to be an engineer, they have to get to know that engineering has a specificity, when you look at the line of work in engineering there is aeronautical engineering, which is your line of work? Now my line of work is specifically dealing with power systems. I am measured in power systems when I was in my fifth year at the university. So power system is also divided into two. We have heavy current engineering and light current engineering. So mine was dealing with the heavy current engineering. That one is involving systems which are using heavy current. And this is what enables you to now get to the point where right now you are a lecturer at the university? Exactly. And I am also practicing as an engineer. In fact, even after this interview I am going to supervise a certain site where we are electrifying a certain area and we are also building a small power plant which can supplement what we already have in the country. We have a deficit in power generation. We don't have enough. And that's one of the challenges we have in this country. Now as young engineers we are coming up with several ideas and projects on how to bridge the gap so that we have enough power in this country. Ramagoku, even before you continue, when we talk about engineering some people don't even know what engineering means. And that's actually where I was coming to. Maybe you can just give us a brief definition of what engineering is all about. Ramagoku, I want to tell you that in this country you cannot even call yourself an engineer if you have not come up with a tangible project which can help solve the problems of the society. Parents call themselves who the engineer, who you the engineer, who you? An engineer and he has not even done any engineering project. So I want to tell you like right now I'm proud to be called engineer because even a project which I had at the university has now become a reality. I'm developing a polygraph. This is a device which is going to help even the government to curb this issue or this money is called corruption. A polygraph is just a detector or a lie detector. We fondly call it a lie detector. So it is a device which when you connect it to the potbelly of anybody then you pose three or four questions to that particular individual. Then depending on how that individual responds then there is what we call responses from the answer that individual is going to give when you pose a question to them. Those responses will be focused on the screen in terms of licidwa figures. Then we sit down as engineers and analyze those licidwa figures and conclude that particular person is lying or saying the truth. This is a polygraph which is in its advanced stage and it can even be implemented if the government is ready. Last month I was talking to my political leaders in Kisumu County to allow me to implement this device in their offices or in their public offices. What was the outcome of the whole conversation? The outcome is negative because you see the corruption is like cancer even down there. So they have refused to implement this idea and this idea is my brainchild. You see now they are avoiding this idea because they know most of them are very corrupt. So you are saying for you to be an engineer you must have an idea and you must have gone through a given line of work in academia. Let me put it in simple terms. You need to be an engineer. You must have come up with a project, an engineering project which can solve a societal problem. Whether that problem is small or big but that project you have come up with must have solved a certain societal problem in the country or in the area of your residence because normally people come up with those projects after surveying where they are the problems of the area they reside in. And this happens after like passing through some or at the end of the stages in school let's say after university or at what stage should it be. Exactly that's why even the curriculum which we went through because I went through 844 system. That curriculum was having an idea of starting to prepare pupils or even students right from high school. We have a program called Kenya Science and Engineering Fair. This program is trying to align even students right down there to come up with projects, engineering projects. So when you come to the university now you will now do it in a better way because at the high school level it is just like a preparation when able you start thinking about that line. So now engineer you said you developed interest in engineering when you were in class 6. When I was in class 6. It begs the question for someone who is watching you today. They still don't have an idea or a clue about what they want to do for their career. What is the process or the procedure? How can one be able to find or identify their career path especially in a field like engineering? That's a very good question Ramagoko. In fact that was supposed to be the basis of our discussion because let me tell you identifying a career path or identifying a talent is the major challenge in any career path. So in fact I'm trying to think that if that person could have not come to that school where I was studying in that primary school then I could have not even identified my talent but I want to give the youths especially those who are still young those who still don't know their talents those who have not identified their talents I want to give them three major ways of how they can identify their talents at an early age and then once you have identified your talent then you stick with it. You stick with it up to the highest level of education. So these are three ways of talent identification. These are three ways of talent identification. Okay, let's go. Number one. Number one on how you can identify your talent is to identify what thrill you at childhood and that is why even in America America is more advanced in terms of talent identification because they have resources. When you want to find out what thrills a young one for example then you have to give that young one several resources then you will just realize that from the several resources what we call paraphernalia of talent identification you surround the kid with paraphernalia of talent identification then from there the kid will just identify one particular paraphernalia which thrills the kid then from there now the kid will now be developed based on what the kid has just identified from a group of resources In other words you're saying you give them an environment that has a variety of things to do they can play with this, that and through that you'll find out what thrills them. And this is regardless of whether someone is Indo or Outdo This is regardless of whether you are Indo or Outdo you just provide the resources for the young one several resources because I've told you in this career path there are a lot of careers we can pursue as individuals And does this also vary with age? This one does not vary with age In fact I was coming to that point because that was the initial process of talent identification then if you are past that age and you had not gone through that process then you can still identify this talent when you are an adult Now when you are an adult what you need to be given is a chance just to identify what consumes your time most what you can do to an extent that you lose track of time you get the point what you can find yourself doing to an extent that you now lose the track of time because you are so occupied with age you are so occupied with this activity to an extent that you even forget what you were supposed to do the next hour and this is a positive activity and this is a positive activity and I want to discourage the youths because the youths think that watching soka is a talent watching soka because most of them are engrossed you say watching not playing watching is not a talent or watching is not a career watching soka is not a talent or a career but playing soka getting involved in it doing it is what can constitute a career when you are doing it personally and Ramagoka I want to tell you that 63% of even the workforce in this country are not happy with what they are doing in their workplaces because they don't love it which means they pursued careers which they were not even passionate about so for you to be able to find out what you career you most likely fit in is when you find that you like doing something a lot that you should develop a talent from that exactly ok so that was number one what thrills you what thrills you an individual do you go to number two now and I've just said number two when now you have come to an adult stage and now you still don't know how to identify your talent then you can also get involved in an activity which occupies your mind and you can even lose track of time while doing this particular activity so that one can also be used to identify the talent of an individual so number one is what thrills you number two what occupies your time what occupies you you said there are three there were three points then the last point which is also very very very important is talking to an expert talk about it talking to an expert talking to an expert means that you seek more information from career counsellors because we have people who have studied this identification of careers and you can consult them they are career counsellors and that is why even right now I am pleased with the government because the government is even trying to set career centres right from primary school to secondary school to the university so we have career counsellors who can guide students who have not even identified their talents then they are guided accordingly in terms of even posting questions to them we have aptitude questions you can post to an individual then depending on how they respond to such questions you can guide them accordingly now what are the opportunities available in engineering especially in terms of career development in engineering the opportunities are very very many because you realise even in this country we have construction going on almost on a daily basis but the challenge the youth of this country have is that these opportunities are there but they are being given to Chinese for example they are being given to Germany the contractors from Germany and yet we have people in this country who can even undertake this opportunity do you have Kenan engineers who are capable of coming up to the occasion I have just given you an example of myself and I know to the county government of Kisumu and they refused in total that this device will expose the county government and I want to tell you Ramagoko that this is something we should drum up support for as youths of this country because we have a lot of youths with talents we don't even have resource centers where these talents can be nurtured right from where I come from I come from a place called Kabonyu Kanyaguwa in that area we don't even have one resource center where youths can be nurtured where experts who can guide the youths in terms of talent identification are not there the centers are not there and this is a very big challenge in this country now for someone who hasn't yet gotten an interest in engineering how should someone be able to understand the benefits of engineering especially as a career considering the fact that they are still not yet the mind has not been made up because yes it is a fact that at some point you have to weigh out which path do I take from this point someone is doing their national examinations this year that they have to discover themselves in this path so how best can you prepare yourself for a career like this and how best can you also be able to to look out for the potentials that exist in engineering Ramaguka, I want to tell you that we have septogenarians and octogenarians those who are engineers long time ago those who have experience in engineering septogenarians and octogenarians by definition what exactly for those who may not understand these are people who are in their 8th decade of life these are people who are so much experienced like when I talk about octogenarian this is somebody who is an engineer but he is 9th decade 8th decade in terms of age they have expertise these people are not offering mental programs to the young engineers like us in fact I have come out of that cocoon just by myself I have never been mentored by these senior engineers no one has mentored me now I am coming out with a strong engineering background and I am also trying to organize mentorship programs those who are still in high school and that's why I want to plead with them these octogenarians these people who have a lot of experience the old that is the old professionals who are now in their 8th decade in terms of age they should come down and mentor these young engineers so that they also take over once they have become senile now these are the challenges that we are facing and I want to tell you that if we can have these mentorship programs right from the grassroots then we can even identify these talents at a tender age then we develop them and then they become experts in future I want us to finish this conversation at that point but you can come up with some of these mentorship programs yourself I have even started the mentorship program right now I am mentoring 5 good students but they are still in high school they are still in high school so I am mentoring them in terms of even guiding them to do coding because I know I am also an expert in SCADA and PLC program so I am even guiding them to do coding Python coding and everything related to electrical engineering so they are doing very well for someone who is watching you and they would like to reach out to you is there any way that they can be able to get you yes all over in social media I have a page called engineer polo dindo and they can even join the page because you know that will enable me to reach out to very many people because I want to touch lives even across the globe thank you very much engineer follow him on facebook engineer polo dindo that is my page my facebook is just polo dindo because I opened the facebook when I was still in high school and I have not attained the title engineer so right now but you can edit it I can edit it but I have just made it to remain the way it is thank you very much engineer it's a pleasure having you and I wish you the best you are doing a fantastic job thank you very much Ramaguko that is what brings us to the end of this conversation today it's all about career development in engineering if you hear the engineer speaking in my friend you'll feel like if you're becoming an engineer from the comfort of your home well that brings us to the end of this conversation the hashtag as always is why in the morning on twitter at Ramaguko at Y254 channel on twitter and facebook your thoughts about engineer polo dindo and this conversation may god bless you god bless the work of your hands have a fantastic day see you again next week on Monday my name is Ramaguko thank you