Uhuru, Ruto home turfs bag top jobs in energy industry

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The Kenya Electricity Generating Company's (KenGen) headquarters. Owing to the multi-billion shillings contracts in the energy sector, top jobs in the parastatals have turned out to be some of the most coveted positions. Photo/FILE  Nation Media Group

By SATURDAY NATION REPORTER business@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, July 12  2013 at  19:12

Top jobs in state-owned firms in the energy sector are now occupied by executives from the home area of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy.

KenGen, Kenya Power, Rural Electrification Authority (REA) and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) have appointed interim CEOs following the exit of their top brass with individuals from the Rift Valley and Central regions.

KenGen tapped Simon Ngure on June 27 to replace Eddy Njoroge while REA last week replaced Zachary Ayieko with Ng’ang’a Munyu — both appointees with roots in Central Kenya, the home turf of President Kenyatta.

The Rift Valley has benefited with the appointments of Ben Chumo and Charles Tanui as interim boss of Kenya Power and KPC respectively following the exit of Joseph Njoroge and Selest Kilinda.

The two populous regions voted overwhelmingly for President Kenyatta’s Jubilee Coalition in the March 4 elections — a move that saw Mr Kenyatta appoint the Cabinet and the principal secretary of the Energy and Petroleum ministry from Rift Valley and Central.

Davis Chirchir is the Cabinet Secretary while Mr Njoroge, who served as Kenya Power CEO since 2007, was appointed Energy principal secretary.

The search for substantive CEOs of the parastatals is set to give Mr Chirchir an opportunity to appoint preferred managers to run the cash-rich firms as the balance of power shifts in Kenya’s energy industry.

The process of getting permanent replacements will be keenly watched, especially the regions where the executives will come from, in a market that is used to confirming those acting in parastatals top jobs.

The President has maintained that his government will severe the practice of distributing State jobs to political followers and tribesmen despite concerns that the Cabinet is dominated by persons from Rift Valley and Central regions.

Top jobs in KenGen, Kenya Power and KPC are the most coveted among State-owned firms given that they control multi-billion shilling contracts. Last year, they generated a combined sales volume of Sh77.5 billion and Sh20.3 billion profit.

The recruitments will be guided by the boards but Mr Chirchir and Mr Njoroge will play a bigger role on who runs the energy sector parastatals.

The boards, which are dominated by state appointees, are ideally expected to forward three names to Mr Chirchir to pick his preferred candidate.

A debate has been raging as to whether the government’s power should be restricted to appointing directors or State-owned listed companies like Kenya Power and KenGen should be run like any other parastatals where ministers meddle in the appointment of CEOs and managers.

The new bosses in the firms are also expected to attract attention both within the very top level of government and in the private sector, especially among deal makers eyeing a piece of the multi billion shillings projects which the parastatals have lined up. 

The new boss at KPC will be expected to guide the replacement of existing pipeline linking Mombasa to Nairobi, which has outlived its 30-year life span and is prone to ruptures.

Plans to build a new $300 million (Sh25.5 billion) fuel pipeline from the Mombasa port to Nairobi have been on the radar for the past five years and KPC is floating a tender for the construction of a bigger pipeline.

Its former managing director, Mr Kilinda, was dismissed on the grounds that during his reign he hired three siblings — a sister who is a telephonist, a brother who is a welder, and a sister who is a clerical officer.

Kenya Power is seeking to spend Sh128 billion over the next five years to revamp its ageing electricity distribution network. Its CEO quit to join the government and was replaced by human resources director, Mr Chumo. KenGen is also working on multi-billion shilling power plants.

Mr Njoroge of KenGen chose to retire midstream in a five-year term and was replaced by the regulatory affairs director, Mr Ngure.

Mr Ayieko, 58, opted not to seek another terms at REA and was replaced in an interim capacity by Ng’ang’a Munyu, currently the head of corporate planning at the authority.