Kimunya hands KPA chief new contract six months early
KPA managing director Gichiri Ndua at a past function. Mr Ndua's contract has been extended for another three years. Photo/File
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In a Kenya Gazette notice issued on Friday, Mr Kimunya said he relied on powers vested by section 5 (1) of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Act.
The section allows the minister to appoint the managing director after consultation with the board.
KPA board chairman Shujuri Baramadi said the reappointment was in order.
Transport minister Amos Kimunya has extended the contract of Kenya Ports Authority managing director Francis Gichiri Ndua for another three years, six months before the renewal was due.
In a Kenya Gazette notice issued on Friday, Mr Kimunya said he relied on powers vested by section 5 (1) of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Act.
The section allows the minister to appoint the managing director after consultation with the board and to review the terms and conditions of service from time to time.
Mr Kimunya could not be reached for comment, but KPA board chairman Shukuri Baramadi said the reappointment was in order.
“The reappointment is procedural because Mr Ndua applied for extension of this position as required by regulation,” Mr Baramadi told the Business Daily by phone on Friday.
Mr Baramadi described Mr Ndua as a performer, saying the chief executive had helped improve KPA revenues to Sh48 billion last year.
“The board met on January 25 and recommended that he be reappointed because of the sterling performance,” Mr Baramadi said.
The reappointment of Mr Ndua just two weeks to election is the latest case of outgoing ministers filling up positions in strategic parastatals just before they leave office.
This has led to suspicions that they are securing jobs for their cronies because after the March 4 General Election ministers, who will be called cabinet secretaries, will be selected competitively and be approved by Parliament before being appointed.
“Appointments made by incumbents just before elections may be due to political consideration or because ministers have piled backlogs which have to be cleared,” Kenya Institute of Management chief executive officer David Muturi said in an earlier interview.
Given the intense lobbying that characterises top civil service and parastatal jobs, civil society groups have called for public scrutiny of the rushed appointments.
Between December last year and January this year, ministers appointed nearly 70 directors of state corporations. Mr Kimunya together with Samuel Poghisio (Information), Anyang’ Nyong’o (Medical Services), Henry Kosgey (Industrialisation) and Kiraitu Murungi (Energy) made the most appointments.
The appointments have affected boards of Communications Commission of Kenya, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, East African Portland Cement Company, Kenyatta National Hospital and National Hospital Insurance Fund.
Others are Kenya Film Commission (KFC), National Oil Corporation, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, Konza Technopolis Development Authority and Kenya Medical Training College.
Mr Kimunya’s appointments of KPA board members has been met with controversy since last year when political leaders in the former Coast Province protested that they did not reflect Kenya’s ethnic diversity.
The bone of contention was a Kenya Gazette notice dated April 20 appointing Bernard Githuma, Eunice Njeru and Abdalla Mohamed to replace Mohamed Jahazi, George Weiria and Komora Jillo when their terms expired.
The decision was rescinded after the National Cohesion and Integration Commission intervened.
Striking KPA supervisors alleged two weeks ago that the top management comprised members of one ethnic community. They were demand that their salaries be harmonised with those of their counterparts in other top parastatals.
Last year, KPA registered a 9.9 per cent growth in cargo volumes to 21.92 million tonnes compared to 19.95 million tonnes in 2011.
Users of the Mombasa Port, especially those from the landlocked neighbouring countries, have in the past complained about perennial congestion, which Mr Ndua blamed on inefficient rail transport.
The government is currently racing against time to build a second container terminal at a cost of Sh28 billion to the port’s competitiveness. Finance minister Njeru Githae said this week that efficiency at the port needed to be enhanced.
“Part of the reason the port still controls regional business is because the Port of Dar es salaam has its fair share of issues. If they fix them before we do ours, we could lose regional cargo business completely,” Mr Githae said last week when he launched 30 projects to be implemented through public-private partnerships.
