Embattled Kenya Airways chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze will finally leave in the first quarter of 2017, the board announced yesterday, bringing to an end his five-year career at the loss-making national carrier.
“While I regret this decision, I respect his position. Mbuvi will stay on until a successor is found which is expected to take some months,” chairman Michael Joseph said in a statement yesterday.
Mbuvi will have worked with KQ for over five years having joined as chief operating officer in September 2011, before succeeding Titus Naikuni as CEO in November 2014.
Joseph said Mbuvi “felt it was a natural point in the company's evolution to pass on the baton”. The outgoing KQ boss has recently fallen out with pilots body who demanded his ouster together with former chair Dennis Awori who left last month.
“Selection of the next CEO will be a thoughtful process led by myself together with the board governance and nominations committee, which will focus on producing the right outcomes to lead KQ into its next chapter,” Joseph said.
The process is expected to be completed within the next three months. Quarter one of 2017 runs from January to March.
“I have already started the process to search for and identify the right candidate with the relevant airline experience,” he said.
The announcement comes barely a month after former chairman ambassador Dennis Awori left the troubled airline.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association have been calling for the exit of the two this year, issuing two strike notices in seven months(April 26 and October 11), after the airline recorded a series of loses.
The airline posted a record post tax loss of Sh26.2 billion for the year that ended March 31, up from Sh25.7 previously.
Led by secretary general Paul Gichinga, the pilots expressed lack of confidence in the two, saying they lacked capacity to turn around the airline.
Joseph however yesterday said Mbuvi led KQ during “an extremely challenging period”.
“During this period, although KQ faced its challenges, Mbuvi and the team were able to analyse and articulate these challenges for various stakeholders to understand and support,” he said.
The former Safaricom CEO took over from Awori, and is expected to take back the carrier to profitability, pegged on his success at the country’s leading telecommunication company