The board of Kenya Airways yesterday met and elected Michael Joseph, the former Safaricom chief executive, as chair hoping his international experience will help turnaround the troubled company.
Joseph has taken over from Dennis Awori who resigned ahead of release of Kenya Airways' half-year performance this morning.
“Ambassador Awori has been replaced by Mr Michael Joseph, who has extensive international experience and is best known as the founding CEO of Safaricom, which he took from a subscriber base of 18,000 to 17 million in a period of just 10 years,” Transport CS Macharia said in a statement.
Macharia, however, defended Awori’s track record over the last year he has been in charge of the board.
“When he took over the role of chairman, he had no illusions about the immensity, complexity and gravity of the task that awaited the board. KQ had just suffered its worst loss ever and was buffeted by both intense competition and a loss of confidence by the people of Kenya,” the CS said.
KQ is expected to announce a 58.33 per cent or Sh7 billion fall in half-year loss to Sh5 billion for the period ended September 30, while operating profit has improved by Sh2 billion.
“In the six months to September 30, passenger numbers went up by 89,000 to 2.23 million, despite flying fewer planes, cabin factor improved 71 per cent against 68 per cent on the previous year,” Macharia said in the statement.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association has been pushing for Awori and chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze since April. A deal for the exit of the chair was reached last week in a deal that saw the pilots call off its planned indefinite strike that was to be effected on October 18.
Ngunze and former CEO Titus Naikuni were adversely mentioned in a forensic audit by Deloitte.
“The forensic audit that the board commissioned in January 2016, reinforces what it already knew of the urgent need to improve systems, processes and activities in order to make sure that it is formulated and implemented the turnaround strategy. The board had full sight of all the issues the airline had faced and in turn ensured that any gaps identified were plugged conclusively so that the turnaround was sustainable.”