Companies

Former Speaker Marende elected to Kenya Power board

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Mr Kenneth Marende at a past event. PHOTO | FILE

Former House Speaker Kenneth Marende has been elected a board member of Kenya Power, marking a return to a public institution following his exit from parliament two years ago.

Mr Marende received the highest number of votes in an election where all former directors who were seeking re-election lost out, including chairman Eliazar Ochola, Patrick Obath and Jacob Mwirigi.

Kenya Power shareholders voted in new faces, including lawyer Adil Khawaja, a managing partner at Hamilton Harrison & Mathews, and stockbroker Wilson Kimutai to join the company’s board.

“The three persons have been elected by the shareholders as directors of the company,” said Beatrice Meso, Kenya Power company secretary, in regulatory filings to the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

The polling results show that the government supported the bid by Messrs Marende, Khawaja and Kimutai given the State’s 50.08 per cent stake that is crucial for anyone to sail through as a director in the utility firm.

Kenya Power has about 27,000 shareholders who exercise weighted voting rights — where one’s vote is equivalent to their stake.

The election results reveal that the State engineered the boardroom coup that kicked out Kenya Power chairman along with two other non-executive directors.

EARLIER: Marende targets director position at Kenya Power

Mr Ochola, 66, joined the board in December 2006 and was appointed chairman in March 2010 by then president Mwai Kibaki.

A former chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) Mr Obath, 59, joined the Kenya Power board in December 2009. Mr Mwirigi, 69, also joined the board at the same time.

The newly elected directors stand to earn Sh0.6 million in fees per annum, among other allowances.

Kenya Power has a nine-member board which is heavy on government appointees, including managing director Ben Chumo, Energy PS Joseph Njoroge and Treasury PS Kamau Thugge.

The electricity distributor’s payments to directors surged nearly two-thirds to Sh67.3 million in the period to June 2014 from Sh40.9 million a year earlier.

Shareholders last week approved a motion setting the fees for non-executive directors at Sh0.6 million per year for the year ended June 2014.
Its total emoluments to directors grew by a tenth to hit Sh142.7 million in the period under review.

“Directors are entitled to sitting allowance for every meeting attended, lunch allowance, accommodation and mileage reimbursement where applicable...” Kenya Power says in its latest annual report.