Institute Of Quantity Surveyors Of Kenya Statement On Increase In CPD Fees

The Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK) has taken note of widespread concerns circulating among members regarding the upcoming BORAQS CPD seminar scheduled for May 2025, including discussions around a potential boycott. Upon inquiry, we have confirmed that the increased seminar fees, representing a 50% hike, are indeed reflected in the BORAQS registration portal, as discovered midway through the sign-up process. The notification was delivered discreetly via SMS on Saturday, 12th April 2025, at 3:23 PM. No circular, explanation, or consultation preceded this significant change.

We categorically object not only to the fee increase but to the continued pattern of opaque decision-making by the Board. This is not the first instance where financial and administrative burdens have been introduced without prior consultation. This latest action is merely symptomatic of a deeper and persistent issue: a regulator acting in isolation from the very professionals it purports to serve.

As an Institute, we are continually engaging with BORAQS in good faith on a wide range of matters affecting the Quantity Surveying profession and the wider built environment. Despite our efforts through letters, meetings, and formal appeals, BORAQS has consistently remained non-responsive, dismissive, and resistant to collaboration.

We remind the Board that IQSK, as the collective voice of the profession, is closest to the realities, challenges, and aspirations of its members. Our insights are grounded in real industry practice, not policy abstraction—and we expect to be engaged as equals in any decisions affecting our community.

Through our affiliation with the African Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS), we have repeatedly demonstrated models of effective regulatory-professional engagement from across the continent—Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and others. In every one of these markets, the regulator and professional institutes operate in synchrony. Kenya remains the outlier—where the regulator isolates itself from practitioners and imposes decisions without dialogue.

During our 2024 IQSK Summit, our President made a direct, public appeal to the leadership of BORAQS and fellow stakeholders, calling for meaningful cooperation. That appeal, like many formal correspondences before it, went unanswered.

We are now compelled to ask: what is the role of a regulator that is consistently absent from the realities of the profession? A regulator that functions from a distance, insulated from feedback, is not fulfilling a mandate of stewardship—but of control.