The Public Service Commission has finally stepped into the growing leadership fight at the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, months after acting Managing Director Kipkemoi Kibias crossed the legal limit cited by petitioners challenging his continued stay in office.

PSC gave the KETRACO board fourteen days, ending on July 30, 2026, to respond to a petition seeking Kibias’s removal, failure to which the commission warned that it could proceed and make its own decision without further input from the company.

The intervention has opened a bigger question about why the commission waited this long, since Kibias has occupied the acting position from September 19, 2025, placing his tenure well beyond the six month limit cited under Section 34(3) of the Public Service Commission Act.

Kibias took control following the exit of former Managing Director John Mativo, but what began as a temporary appointment has now lasted more than ten months, with KETRACO yet to appoint a permanent chief executive to run one of Kenya’s most important infrastructure companies.

The petition now before PSC argues that Kibias should leave the acting position immediately, and that any acting allowance paid after the permitted period should be recovered from him or from the officials who authorised the continued payments.

These claims have not yet been decided, and the KETRACO board has been given an opportunity to answer them, but the length of the acting appointment is already confirmed by the company’s own leadership records and public announcements.

The dispute is no longer limited to the number of months Kibias has remained in office, since the recruitment process intended to produce a permanent managing director has attracted lawsuits, accusations of manipulated requirements and questions over who the process was meant to favour.

KETRACO first advertised the chief executive position with requirements that went beyond the basic qualifications stated under the Government Owned Enterprises Act, 2025, leading to claims that qualified applicants were being deliberately locked out of the race.

The law requires a relevant university degree, at least ten years of related work experience, five years in senior management and compliance with Chapter Six of the Constitution, according to the court case filed against the recruitment process.

The first advertisement demanded fifteen years of relevant experience, with ten years spent in senior management, alongside several other conditions that critics said had no clear basis under the new law governing state corporations.

A legal threat forced KETRACO to cancel that recruitment round, but the company later returned with another advertisement after dropping several disputed conditions, including some tax and integrity clearance requirements contained in the earlier notice.

Petitioners now want PSC to examine whether the cancellation and repeat advertisement were ordinary corrections, or part of an attempt to control the field of applicants and improve the chances of someone already serving within KETRACO.

That question carries added weight since Kibias is not an outsider temporarily holding the office, but a long serving KETRACO executive who previously worked as a general manager before being appointed acting managing director.

KETRACO says Kibias has more than twenty years of experience in the electricity sector, backed by degrees in electrical and electronics engineering, business administration and nuclear power plant engineering.

His professional background is not the main issue raised by the petition, since the dispute centres on the legality of his continued acting appointment and the handling of a recruitment process in which he could become a candidate.

The board expected to answer these questions is facing its own legal problems, after the Employment and Labour Relations Court temporarily barred three newly appointed directors from carrying out KETRACO board duties.

The court stopped Mercylinnete Rotich, Janerose Gatwiri and Nick Ochola from acting as directors, and it suspended board resolutions made by them or in their presence from May 29, 2026, pending the hearing of the case challenging their appointments.

Those orders have created fresh questions about whether the remaining directors have the legal strength and numbers needed to make major decisions, including the appointment of a permanent managing director or the removal of the current acting chief.

The petitioner has asked PSC to step past the troubled board, remove Kibias from the acting position and appoint another qualified officer until a lawful recruitment process produces a permanent managing director.

PSC’s ultimatum shows the commission now considers the board’s response overdue, with reports indicating that officials believe KETRACO has been slow to deal with the complaints surrounding Kibias’s continued stay.

The timing is serious since KETRACO is handling transmission projects worth tens of billions of shillings, including five proposed high voltage projects valued at between Sh50 billion and Sh65 billion under public private partnership arrangements.

The proposed projects include transmission lines and substations serving Mutomo, Voi, Taveta, Maralal and Kilgoris, meaning leadership decisions made at KETRACO will affect contracts, financing and electricity infrastructure across several counties.

KETRACO is already party to another Sh40.4 billion transmission agreement involving Africa50 and Power Grid Corporation of India, covering major lines between Lessos and Loosuk, and between Kibos, Kakamega and Musaga.

A company controlling projects of this size cannot treat the office of managing director as an endless temporary posting, particularly where the acting chief may participate in decisions affecting recruitment, procurement and long term infrastructure contracts.

PSC must now decide whether the board’s explanation answers the complaints, whether Kibias can lawfully remain in office and whether money paid as acting allowance after the cited legal limit should be recovered.

The commission’s action may have arrived late, but it has placed KETRACO’s leadership crisis on an official clock, with the board now required to defend an acting appointment that has continued far beyond its original temporary purpose.