Automobile Mechanics School

12/11/2023

KBCT will be launching a new program in mid to late 2024, an Automobile Mechanics School, which will be managed under the Vocational Education Initiative of the Trust. The goal is to train interested local Maasai youth auto-mechanics for self-employment or employment at camps within Mara North Conservancy as well as outside the Mara.

The initial enrollment objective is to have 6 students in the first class and expanding to 12 students in the future. The curriculum will include theoretical and practical training. An instructor for the classroom has yet to be identified. The teacher of the hands-on training will be Joseph Wambua, who is employed at the Karen Blixen Camp – where the school will be located.

The course will take place over 18 months, which will be divided into 3 levels of training. Each level will be comprised of 3 months of classroom training followed by 3 months of an internship. In the initial 3 months the students will receive an introduction to the basics of auto-mechanics. In the second and third levels of the course the students will be taught more advanced skills.

The vehicles on which the students will be taught will range from a small car to a medium-sized truck, including the Land Cruiser, which is the principal vehicle for game drives within the Mara North Conservancy. The students will learn to make repairs on KBC vehicles as well as from other tourist camps, which will provide income for operating costs of the school. At present, many vehicles are brought to Nairobi for repairs. Repairs at the workshop will enable avoiding travel to Nairobi and receiving repairs at less cost.

Two of the prime people responsible of for the project are Maurice Khaweri, KBC Maintenance Manager and Benedict Walubengo, The Karen Blixen Camp Trust Coordinator and Karen Blixen Hospitality School Administrator. In the video below they tell more about the new initiative.

Within part of the Level 3 practical training the students will be presented with a “dead” engine that they will need to disassemble and reassemble to create a “live” engine. They will have to utilize their training of the wiring of automobiles and trucks to diagnose the cause of the dead engine to get the engine to be operable again.

Part of the curriculum also includes training for the national driver’s examination.  The cost of the licensure will be included in the tuition for the school. The students will also receive instruction in Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, and communication skills.

The person who will manage the curriculum for the new Automobile Mechanics School is Benedict Walubengo, who serves in the same capacity for the Hospitality School with the Karen Blixen Camp Trust. Key responsibility for the program also includes Maurice Khaweri, who supervises the auto-mechanics shop at Karen Blixen Camp. Students in auto-mechanics at the Zealand Business College in Denmark will also have internships within the repairs shop.