Queries at KPC over hiring of top manager

A senior manager at the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is facing career-threatening probe over alleged forgery of his academic papers used to acquire his job.

This is after the KPC Board met and adopted a report said to recommend the sacking of Peter Mbugua Njenga, currently serving as the General Manager (Operations & Maintenance) for failing to meet key requirement standards before appointment.

In the papers presented to KPC prior to his appointment, Mbugua is reportedly recorded as having obtained a master’s degree in Engineering Management from University of Houston, Clear Lake (1994) and Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Praire View A7M University, Texas (1991), something the investigators are raising a red flag over.

A private firm, Coldstone Investment, a HR consultancy firm that KPC contracted to investigate the allegations has however reportedly found no records of even the primary and high school that Njenga is recorded to have attended.

According to the report, Njenga also failed to submit the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Police Service and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) clearance certificates as required before assuming the public position.

The report also asserts that Njenga reportedly used different names in his national identity card and passport; Peter Mbugua Njenga and James Peter Mbugua.

In a letter addressed to the Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro dated September 19th, 2017, a local lobby had called for Njenga’s hiring to be probed.

In the letter also copied to the KPC board Chairman John Ngumi, KPC MD Joe Sang, Director of Public Prosecutions, EACC and the Ombudsman, the NGO had cited public outcry over the appointment.

Documents at KPC are said to show only two candidates out of the 25 interviewed for the senior post had proper documentation and met the employment threshold for the position, documents the lobby group avers as evidence of possible bias in favour of Njenga.

In his rejoinder however, Njenga has denied the claims as untrue and malicious, even as sources within KPC intimated investigations into the matter were underway.