Tension at KPA as captain Ruto plots more changes

It has now emerged that some senior officers at the Kenya Ports Authority are a worried lot after the newly appointed Managing Director Captain William Ruto kicked off his plan to effect leadership changes.

The MD made leadership changes last week and those affected already include Anderson Mtalaki from General Manager engineering services to Principal officer Dockyard.

Daniel Ogutu General Manager Human Resource transferred to Shimoni, Mary Wangai transferred to Lamu.

The changes saw Engineer Julius Tai take over from Mtalaki as the GM Engineering while new appointments to the procurement are expected before May this year.

Those targeting to head the procurement department include Cosmas G. Makori and Mr Julius Tanui.

The procurement department which is also known as the supply chain is headed by Evelyne Shigoli who is the General Manager.

Ruto’s take over was not received well in some quarters and immediately he took office,one of the long serving officers engineer Vincent Sidai proceeded to leave until further notice. 

In the supply chain, things are not okay and it is expected that some changes will be made considering that the authority has occasionally been accused of corruption and procurement flaws.

Insiders at KPA have revealed that the current GM Shigoli is doing intensive lobbying at the highest level to save herself from what could be an imminent transfer to a new role.

Their have been reports that she has engaged prominent leaders from the Luhya community among them Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudadadi and speaker Moses Wetangula is also said to be using a lot of monkey issuing some LPO  and milking million of money from suppliers so that she can safeguard her position.

Most of those being extorted includes the Somalia tycoons who are contracted at the port and the beneficiary of this all is prime cabinet secretary Musalia Mudavadi.  

She is also said to have engaged suppliers who have worked close with her for monetary support in securing her job.

This could be seen as a sign of the new changes that captain Ruto wants to bring on board even as the Kenya Kwanza government battles to salvage the economic situation in the country.

Ruto took over as the new managing director for the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) for a term of three years, filling a position left vacant in 2020.

The authority has been marred with corruption scandals,boardroom wrangles and unending political interference.

For Captain William Ruto,the task ahead of him is not going to be a walk in the park whatsoever. Top on the list for him is dealing with the organizational structure, stabilizing the agency from losses worth billions that are often incurred through corruption and the never ending mysterious disappearance of containers.
 
An intelligence report in our possession details the big mess that has troubled the authority and could perhaps serve as a proper lead for the new MD.
 
As per the report, KPA has since April 2022 been implementing a revised organization structure. 
 
The exercise has been mired in irregularities, illegalities and was fraught with political patronage, cronyism, tribalism, interference from Cartels and agents of state capture.
 
The report adds that the exercise was “opaque” and failed to meet the basic tenets of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 on the principles of transparency, accountability on prudent use of public funds and public participation.
 
Furthermore as the report indicates:  “The said exercise did not get the approval of the Public Service Commission and the Salaries and Remuneration Committee considering several Very Senior positions were created which legally should be filled competitively through advertisement to give deserving Kenyans an opportunity or even advertised internally to ensure all KPA employees get fair opportunity to compete.,”
 
It admits that a small cabal of entrepreneurs crafted a list which the Minister for Finance and National Treasury imposed on the Board for implementation without due process or criteria for the promotions.
 
There are specific cases where employees have been irregularly and discriminatorily promoted more than two grades upwards to the very senior management at the expense of very senior and experienced serving staff.
 
Among whose recent promotions triggered public outrage before captain Ruto took over  include; Anderson Mutalaki (General Manager engineering services) who was previously a principal officer and was promoted 2 grades higher, Evelyn Shigoli (head of procurement) also promoted two grades higher and John Turasha (general manager legal) who were promoted one grade higher.
 
Shigoli has previously been under fire for floating tenders and some reports have linked her to secret meetings with senior officers in government to seek protection from an imminent sack.
 
The new KPA boss has been advised by the intelligence team to cancel the entire irregular exercise and revert to the structure prior to March 2022. 

Every 10 years The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) reviews its organization structure to align it with changing trends in the industry, the Public Service HR guidelines and international best practice. 

The last such review was done and implemented in 2012 KPA with the guidance of the State Corporation Advisory Committee (SCAC) embarked on a Human Resource Instruments review concluded on 5th March 2021.

The instruments were approved in April 2021 by the State Corporation Advisory Committee albeit with comments. Via an Executive order the Operations of the Defunct Kenya Ferry Services Lts were transferred to KPA.

The Human Resource Instruments also took cognizance of restructuring of Kenya Ferry Services Limited, and absorption of its employees into Kenya Ports Authority. 

The Head of Public Service communicated the SCAC approval for the Authority to implement the SCAC approved Human Resource instruments.

The port has lost a lot of revenue running into billions within the last 10 years and the new sheriff in town has his job cut-out direct from procurement since Shigoli took over, she has placed her own people to oversee the spree of looting activities at the Port including the expansion of Dongo project.

Detectives from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission are now investigating massive loss of money during the Month of December 2022. Where Shigoli floated several tenders without following due process as prescribed by law.

A senior officer attached at KPA said that Shigoli floated several public procurement disposal act.

“We wonder why such charters like Shigoli who doesn’t have any qualification to be incharge at procurement. She should be demoted like Mtalaki.” She added.

About The Author