During his more than 10-year tenure at Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco), John Mativo consistently conveyed the State-owned firm’s vision and provided robust responses to the public on key issues concerning power transmission.
This was the same case on September 19, 2025, hours before the Ketraco board of directors announced his abrupt sacking, sparking widespread reaction from his X followers.
“It’s been a great pleasure speaking of my experience and vision to expand the high voltage grid that will ensure Kenya and the region have reliable and adequate power for the present needs and future needs,” Dr Mativo posted on September 19.
Some minutes to 10pm on the same day, a signed statement by Mohamed Abdi, chair of the Ketraco board of directors, sent him packing.
“The board of directors would like to appreciate the outgoing Managing Director, Dr John Muoki Mativo, for his invaluable service and contribution to the company,” said Mr Abdi in a three-sentence press statement.
The brief board announcement of his ouster was a stark contrast to the lengthy statement that the same board issued on April 23, 2023, announcing his appointment as the managing director for an initial period of three years.
Those who sought answers for his ouster were given curt responses, with David Ndii, economic adviser to President William Ruto, responding: “Our turn,” on his X account.
It would later emerge that a board of directors agreed to fire Dr Mativo in a meeting that lasted less than an hour on September 18, 2025.
Reasons for the sack have since remained undisclosed. However, it is the denial of his imminent sacking earlier that week by Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi and Dr Mativo’s silent exit that have raised more questions than answers.
“No, it is not true,” Mr Wandayi had told the Business Daily over the phone, two days before Dr Mativo was sacked.
The ministry and the Ketraco board of directors have been silent on what prompted the decision to sack the man who had thrust the State agency into public limelight on monumental projects, but equally took the heat for others.
“It is improper for the ministry or board of Ketraco to divulge confidential matters of a contract between the employer and an employee…What matters is that Ketraco is running smoothly and that the process was above board,” said Mr Opiyo last Wednesday.
Dr Mativo, a holder of a doctorate in civil engineering and a master’s in structural engineering, bore the heat over the bungled deal in which Adani Group of India was to build three power transmission lines and two substations for Sh95.68 billion ($736 million).
The deal was cancelled following public outcry over its secretive manner and also the indictment of Gautam Adani, billionaire founder of the group, over corruption allegations in the US.
However, although the deal with the Adani Group was cancelled, Dr Mativo successfully led Ketraco in finalising another public–private partnership (PPP) deal with Africa50.
Africa50—a pan-African infrastructure investor—will build a 400 kilovolts (kV) transmission line from Loosuk to Lessos and a 220kV Kisumu-Musaga line.
Dr Mativo left at a time when Ketraco was advancing in efforts to revive the PPP deal for the four lines that had earlier been awarded to Adani Group.
In addition to the PPPs, Dr Mativo led Ketraco in securing a contract to use the firm’s high-voltage lines to evacuate hydropower from Ethiopia to Tanzania.
This 15-year deal is expected to generate an annual income of Sh800 million for Ketraco, totalling Sh12 billion over the period.
“I am looking forward to a date when electricity flows from Egypt to South Africa and across the countries in the region and power pools,” Dr Mativo had told this publication mid this year ahead of the trial phase of evacuating 100 megawatts of power from Ethiopia and Tanzania.
He did not shy away from responding to media queries involving Ketraco, from the bungled Adani PPP to the success stories of upgrading the transmission network and the deal with Tanzania.
Just years after legal changes designated Ketraco as the systems operator in 2021, a role that had been undertaken by Kenya Power for years, efforts to upgrade power transmission infrastructure became more pronounced and a key talking point for Dr Mativo.
However, while Dr Mativo has opted to remain quiet in the wake of his ouster, he leaves a State firm whose prominence in the public limelight has been loud enough.
His substantive successor faces an uphill climb in safely shepherding the now emotive matter of Ketraco’s PPP-funded projects and a growing role of the company in the regional electricity distribution space.
