This archive report was first published on 15 June 2020.
On June 15, 2020, Justice James Rika of the Mombasa Labour Court suspended the recruitment of a managing director at the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) for a period of one month. The decision was made in response to a petition filed by the Commission for Human Rights and Justice, which sought to restructure the KPA board due to infighting and past failures to address corruption.
The petition, which also named the KPA board, the Ministry of Transport, and the Attorney General as respondents, aimed to safeguard the appointment process from threats and violations of constitutional values. The Dock Workers Union, which was allowed to join the petition as an interested party, opposed the move, citing concerns that further delays in the recruitment of a new MD would affect services at the Port of Mombasa.
According to the petition, the current KPA board cannot be trusted to recruit a new managing director, given its past failures to address misappropriation of funds and corruption. The board's chairman, Joseph Kibwana, was accused of taking the petition lightly and instructing concerned directors to ignore it.
The suspension of the recruitment process has left several applicants crestfallen, as they had allegedly spent heavily on board members and ministry of transport cartels in an attempt to secure the position. The labour court has directed parties to the case to file and submit their arguments electronically by June 16, 2020.
