Heritage

Media-shy executive bows out after tumultuous tenure at helm of State oil company

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Former National Oil Corporation of Kenya chief executive Sumayya Hassan-Athmani

Given the choice, former National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) chief executive officer Sumayya Hassan-Athmani would have preferred to appear in media outlets “once every three years”.

However, a series of controversies at the State-owned oil marketing company ensured that the media-shy lawyer was constantly in the spotlight for a better part of her five-year stint at the helm of the State corporation.

Controversy, which welcomed her into the top job of CEO, walked her out of the exit door this week, leaving behind an unreleased audit report by consultancy firm, PwC into how the oil marketer had posted a Sh270 million loss for the six months to December.

Ms Hassan-Athmani, 42, left private practice as a commercial lawyer in 2004 to join Nock, hoping to “contribute to reclaiming our country” in step with the national optimistic mood following President Mwai Kibaki’s election.

The highly spiritual advocate was appointed the company secretary and legal affairs manager and later also headed the strategy docket as well as corporate affairs.

In three years, she had scaled the executive ladder to become the deputy Managing Director of the oil marketer currently ranked fifth in the country with a market share of 5.9 per cent.

She became acting MD in August 2010 after her boss Mwendia Nyaga resigned following boardroom disagreements that saw him decline the junior position of deputy managing director, a demotion occasioned by a restructuring bid.

One man’s misery is another man’s fortune and Ms Hassan-Athmani made true this saying when she was confirmed as Nock’s chief executive officer soon thereafter. “In Ms Sumayya, we have a strong leader who has earned the respect of the board and has been central to the company’s strategic growth plans,” said Peter Munga, Nock’s chairman at the time.

And she took on the job head-on, seeking to increase National Oil’s presence in retail fuel distribution and challenge the dominance of KenolKobil, Total Kenya, Kenya Shell and Oilibya.

Nock, which was modelling its marketing services on India’s oil industry, started increasing its national presence with new service stations through greenfield projects or buyouts.

Another notable development under her tenure was the launch of three kilogramme (kg) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders in November 2011, taking the fight for the lower end of the cooking gas market to her competitors.

She also launched a mobile mini LPG filling plant that could fill cylinders with quantities as little as one kilogramme with plans on installing them in low and middle income neighbourhoods.

“The introduction of economy size LPG cylinder will address the issue of affordability and is part of our strategy of availing affordable LPG to the masses,” said Ms Hassan-Athmani.

Nock also acquired an exploration block in north western Kenya just as Ms Hassan-Athmani was settling into her new role of CEO, heralding a new chapter in its history.

Kenya’s oil reserves are estimated at about one billion barrels and National Oil has over the years been enthusiastically positioning itself to benefit from this vital find.

Nock’s multi-billion shilling investment in new retail outlets, novel LPG cylinders and filling technology as well as new fuel depots eventually showed on the company’s bottom line.

In 2012, she treated her employees to a party in a Naivasha hotel, when Nock posted half a billion shillings in profit, the first time Nock’s end of year party was being held out of Nairobi.

“It was a party to live for,” the CEO told her employees thereafter, promising to hold the next party in Malindi if only they team doubled their full-year profits to Sh1 billion.

The oil marketer does not publicise its financial records, making it difficult to track its performance and compare it with listed counterparts such as KenolKobil and Total.

Ms Hassan-Athmani’s foray into the slippery world of fuel began when she exited Kenya High School and proceeded to the University of Nairobi to do her undergraduate degree in law.

“When I was about to finish my high school, the marriage proposals started coming in. At that time, girls from my community did not pursue further studies as they were married off early,” she told a local television station last year.

“My father was, however, adamant that all his daughters would study for as long and as far as they wanted. He stayed the course on this issue and continues to do so.”

Constant strikes at UoN, she explained, forced her to relocate to the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom where the budding lawyer completed her first degree. She stayed on in Britain and did her Masters in Commercial Law at the University of Bristol.

Upon returning to Kenya and completing her studies at the Kenya School of Law, the Malindi-born and bred Sumayya practised commercial law at several law firms.

And as a wave of optimism swept across the country in 2002 following President Kibaki’s election, she nurtured a dream of one day using her expertise to “bring positive change” to the country.

He chance came when Nock placed a newspaper advert seeking a head of legal. Ms Hassan-Athmani says that at that moment, she had limited knowledge of the company and what it did but applied nonetheless since it was a public institution.

The mother of two got the job and switched from “assisting clients with transactions to initiating them,” a role she says presented unique challenges given her gender and religion.

The male-dominated oil industry had many people second-guessing a woman’s abilities, a face-value judgement which frustrated her to begin with since she felt a need to constantly prove she merited her position(s).

Values

“Some people in the sector used to get surprised to learn that I am a woman. They thought I was a Mr Sumayya,” she said.

Many people did not know what to expect from her while other tried to have her conform to their ideals. While this was challenging, she took it as an opportunity to show she can deliver and still uphold her religious values.

Ms Hassan-Athmani, who loves to dine at the Mandhari restaurant at the Serena and loathes queuing at fast food restaurants, is a philanthropist who nurtured her giving nature from Islamic faith.

One of her current initiatives is Greenhouse for Schools project which seeks to counter the challenge of food insecurity in arid and semi-arid regions of the country by teaching students to grow their food.

On Monday, the chapter of her story touching on Nock came to an end when the firm’s board announced that she had called time on her tenure as of July 1, eight month early.

She was in early February suspended from office but reinstated a few days later pending conclusion of investigations occasioned by a shocking half-year loss.

“The board of directors, management and staff of National Oil wish Ms Hassan-Athmani the best of luck in her future endeavours,” said the Nock statement without making any reference to the earlier reported investigations.