This archive report was first published on 21 June 2021.
Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has been without a substantive head for nearly two years, following the departure of Norwegian expatriate Johnny Andersen in 2019.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has cancelled the interviews for the appointment of a managing director at KAA after the board only presented a single name, Alex Gitari, for promotion to the position.
According to the standard procedure, the board is required to submit three names for the Cabinet Secretary to tap one as head of the State corporation.
However, the KAA board presented only one name, leading to the cancellation of the interviews.
‘The interviews were unprocedural as only one name was forwarded to the CS for the appointment. Ideally, a CS should be given three names for him to choose one, this is what led to the cancellation,’ said a source at the KAA familiar with the recruitment.
The agency's hiring hitch comes at a time when the term of KAA chair Isaac Awuondo and board member Bootsy Mutiso is ending this month, further slowing down the appointment of the new boss at one of Kenya's major installations.
Former KAA chairperson David Kimaiyo attributed the recruitment hitch to competing interests among State officials and some of the directors keen to put their cronies in the position.
Mr Macharia had not responded to calls and text messages sent by the Business Daily on the latest recruitment hitch by press time.
Mr Gitari, former general manager marketing at KAA Jimmy Kibati, and Joseph Njoroge from the Ministry of Transport were among the front runners for the agency's top job.
Mr Kibati has so far resigned from the KAA under unclear circumstances.
The recruitment of a new chief executive at the airports agency has always been marred with political interference, being at the centre stage of the appointment.
As recently as 2015, the KAA witnessed a bungled process in the appointment of the new managing director following the resignation of Lucy Mbugua who had been accused of corruption.
Efforts to replace her hit a dead end on three occasions.
Mr Macharia cancelled the recruitment process and appointed consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers to hire afresh even as vested interests fought viciously for the job, leading to the tapping of an expatriate-Andersen.
