Change of guard looms at CCK as board asks for Njoroge’s exit

The telecoms industry regulator is set to get a new chief executive after its board advised against renewing the contract of Mr Charles Njoroge as director-general.

The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) board has recommended that Mr Njoroge’s term should not be renewed due to his dismal performance in an appraisal conducted early this year.

The appraisal was done in the wake of an application by Mr Njoroge on December 29, 2010, asking for a new three-year contract at the end of his current term in June.

Sources within the CCK board said Mr Njoroge’s departure was agreed on in an overwhelming resolution by directors most of who have expressed difficulties in dealing with him.

It has not helped that Mr Njoroge was abroad on official duty during the crucial but long consultations.

In a letter dated March 10, 2011, to Information minister Samuel Phoghisio, Mr Philip Okundi — who chairs the CCK board — said Mr Njoroge’s contract should not be renewed upon its expiry and recommends that the director-general be asked to proceed on terminal leave.

Such a move should pave the way for the board to appoint an acting director-general and begin the process of recruiting a new executive, Mr Okundi said.

The recommendations by the board to the minister were based on the outcome of the appraisal where Mr Njoroge scored 60 per cent — below the 70 per cent cut off point set by the board for possible renewal of his contract.

Mr Okundi said the score was below the minimum expectation of a chief executive of a regulatory body in a dynamic industry such as telecommunications.

“In view of the above performance the board recommends the termination of the contract with the view to ask Mr Njoroge to go on terminal leave,” reads part of the letter to Mr Poghisio.

Mr Njoroge, 53, who has a masters degree in Economics and a post-graduate certificate in Telecommunications Regulation, took over leadership of the CCK from Mr David Waweru on July  21, 2008.

He has worked with the CCK since March 1999 and has 28 years experience in the sector, having previously worked for the defunct Kenya Post and Telecommunication Corporation.

During his three-year-tenure, CCK has implemented several sector regulations it said were aimed at protecting consumers and tackling anti-competitive behaviour among the operators.

Some of these have upset some operators, who have not hidden their interest in having him out.

Mr Njoroge’s stand on some of the sticky issues has seen him take opposite positions with Information PS Bitange Ndemo.

Internal Security PS Francis Kimemia, who sits in the board is however reported to have been sympathetic to Mr Njoroge during the deliberations on his fate.

Among the issues that were hotly contested were the Tariff and Competition regulations in the telecommunications industry and the laws on broadcasting.

Others included issuance of frequency spectrum that operators want reviewed and the release of the operators’ network quality performance to the public for the first time.

The tariff and competition rule saw him lock horns with Safaricom, which saw the regulations as targeting it.

Safaricom put up a strong opposition to some clauses in the tariff regulations, including the one that required a dominant operator to notify the regulator before introducing any tariff into the market.

The firm said the requirement amounted to introducing price controls in the mobile telecoms market besides exposing it to the danger of being upstaged by rivals.

The rules were later reversed when government hired Frontier Economics to look into the matter afresh.

Njoroge’s position on the ongoing price war in telecommunications industry that it is healthy and should be encouraged, has put him at crossroads with some operators, who see it as dangerous to the sector and could result in revenue losses and job cuts.

The voice tariffs have dropped by 50 per cent since August retailing on an average of Sh3 while SMS charges have fallen to Sh1. 

Industry players who wished not to be named say Mr Njoroge’s efforts to repossess illegal frequency spectrum from some of the big radio and television broadcasters has also fuelled the pressure to have him out.

At the end of the day, it is the fact that a large section of the board did not support him that counted. 

[email protected]