KPA in fresh attempt to fill vacant Managing Director post

The Board of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has made a fresh attempt to fill its vacant Managing Director post.

In an advertisement placed in local dailies on Friday, KPA’s board has invited new applications to the post until the close of business on January 13.

Successful applicants to the post are expected to make the shortlist with the eventual new MD tasked with the role of serving as the Accounting Officer of the Authority and its Principal Spokesperson on matters operations.

At the same time, to make the shortlist, candidates will be required to hold a Master’s Degree in Port Management, Maritime, Shipping & Logistics, Engineering, Business, Social Sciences, Public Policy, Science and Technology.

They must also have a Bachelor’s Degree in an equivalent field in addition to 15 years of relevant work in Ports Management or related fields.

KPA has been without a substantive Managing Director since March 2020 when the then MD Daniel Manduku resigned days after he was arrested over alleged graft.

Manduku stood accused of unlawfully recommending the gazetting of the Nairobi Inland Cargo Terminal as a KPA facility.

Previous attempts by the KPA Board to fill the post in March last year collapsed after the then Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani rejected shortlisted names.

In his dismissal of the shortlist, Yatani said none of the successful candidates had achieved threshold for appointment.

John Mwangemi currently serves as KPA’s MD in an acting capacity after replacing Rashid Salim in July last year with Salim also serving on an interim basis.

The appointment of Mwangemi was challenged in court by the Commission for Human Rights and Justice which deemed the move illegal pointing to the intrigues involved in the filling of the post.