Mr Atanas Maina is set to be unveiled on Tuesday as KR managing director. FILE
What you need to know:
Atanas Maina set to return to State firm in place of Nduva Muli who was appointed Transport PS last year.
He joins Kenya Railway at a moment when the Public Investment Committee (PIC) is investigating the contract of a new railway that will eventually link the port of Mombasa with Uganda following complaints that it was overpriced.
On Monday, UAP Holdings issued a statement on Mr Maina’s exit without mentioning his new appointment.
Kenya Railways Corporation has appointed an executive of UAP Holdings as it managing director.
Sources at the Transport ministry said that Atanas Maina, who has served as UAP company secretary since April 2011, will Tuesday be unveiled as the chief of the state-owned rail firm.
Mr Maina will be making a return to the rail firm where he served as its company secretary in the six years to 2011 and replaces Nduva Muli who was appointed Transport PS last year.
He joins Kenya Railway at a moment when the Public Investment Committee (PIC) is investigating the contract of a new railway that will eventually link the port of Mombasa with Uganda following complaints that it was overpriced.
On Monday, UAP Holdings issued a statement on Mr Maina’s exit without mentioning his new appointment.
“’UAP Holdings Limited today (Monday) bade farewell to its general counsel and group company secretary, Mr Atanas Maina, who has been appointed to a senior position in government,” read the statement.
The Transport ministry said that the principal secretary and chairman of Kenya Railways and former Army chief Jeremiah Kianga would offer an official communication on the rail firm’s top job.
Alfred Matheka has been the acting managing director since mid-last year.
Kenya Railways became a regulator in 2006 when the Rift Valley Railways won a 25-year contract to run the 2,352km Kenya-Uganda railway on the cargo business and a five-year contract for the passenger unit.
Mr Maina’s top priorities would be the implementation and regulation of current and new railway services, including the standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Malaba.
The tender for construction of the new rail was awarded to China Road and Bridge Corporation, but Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter said that the contract is not above board.
The Treasury secretary Henry Rotich told the committee that building the 609km railway would cost Sh447.5 billion including financing costs.
Mr Keter had said the railway would cost Sh1.2 trillion and that the cost per kilometre in the Kenyan case was higher than a similar project in Ethiopia. But Treasury officials said that Kenya’s had more components.
The Kenya Railway chief will also oversee the RVR concession.
The State maintains that RVR has failed to live up to expectations eight years since it won the concession and is headed for talks with rail operator in April over the firm’s performance
Despite the massive potential that rail transport has for improving the region’s economy, it has always played second fiddle to roads in both cargo and passenger transport.
The volume of cargo transported on rail from Mombasa port grew marginally from 1,532 million tonnes in 2009 to 1,619 million tonnes in 2012.
This means that it hauled 7.3 per cent of the 21.9 million metric tonnes that Mombasa port handled in 2012. The rest of the freight was handled by trucks, which have been blamed for the destruction of roads.
Mr Maina has worked in a number of companies as company secretary including Express Kenya, Royal Credit, and Royal Media Services.
At UAP , he facilitated the firm’s entry to Rwanda, Democratic Republic Congo, purchase of 60 per cent stake in Tanzania’s Century Insurance and the firm’s 2012 public offer.
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