• KPA's MD Daniel Manduku resigned on Friday.
• Manduku has been facing graft allegations.
Working at the helm of Kenya Ports Authority was once listed as among the jobs that bring down high-flying careers.
Is it a jinxed job or just a hot seat that requires one to give their all, is very demanding and has a lot of expectations?
In slightly over 11 years, four managing directors of the parastatal have been fired.
They left in disgrace and controversy, none having served a full three-year renewable term.
Since 1979, the position has been held by 15 people, Engineer Rashid Salim being the latest in an acting capacity.
Since then, seven individuals who occupied the office were sacked while four were forced to resign on allegations ranging from graft, incompetency, embezzling of funds, sabotage, witchhunt, to infrastructural developments, port privatization and unscrupulous dealers and politician.
KPA is one of the most highly patronised state corporations by those who want to benefit from the mega projects undertaken at the parastatal.
The latest casualty at the highly profitably ranked institution is Daniel Manduku, an architect.
Before his appointment at KPA in November 2018, Manduku was the chief executive officer of the National Construction Authority.
On March 26, just as things seemed to have settled down, Manduku resigned from the MD position.
“I do hereby tender my resignation, which I hope you will accept, effective 1st June 2020. I am immediately proceeding on terminal leave until then,” he said in a letter.
The KPA board, which met the whole day on March 27 to deliberate Manduku’s decision, settled on Salim as the acting MD.
KPA board chairperson General Rtd Joseph Kibwana said Salim is a long-time employee of the port of Mombasa, having worked for 38 years.
“The board sitting held during the 372nd Special Board Meeting on March 27 resolved to appoint Rashid Salim as the acting MD with effect from March 27. Details which will be communicated in due course,” Kibwana said.
Manduku’s troubles started last year around August. He had been at the helm of the port for 10 months when he was accused of entertaining corrupt deals at KPA. But he said business interests and high-political power play were the reasons behind his woes.
“These are just business interests. I had foreseen this, but the truth will eventually come out,” Manduku said then.
In July 2016, the KPA board appointed Catherine Mturi-Wairi to the coveted top seat, at a time when the government was eager to launch the standard gauge railway.
She became the first woman to lead the parastatal.
Prior to her appointment, Mturi-Wairi had worked at the port of Mombasa for many years, rising to the rank of the General Manager, Finance.
However, in June 2018 after two years in office, she was sacked over incompetency that led to congestion at the port of Mombasa and Inland Container Depot in Nairobi.
She was accused of sabotaging the SGR freight services that had started in January 2018 and which President Uhuru Kenyatta was keen on.
She was unceremoniously kicked out of the office at night, with Manduku being appointed.
Her predecessor Gichiri Ndua, who was the corporate affairs manager, was named the acting MD and confirmed six months later.
With no charges being preferred against him along with other senior managers, Gichiri was sacked over alleged graft in February 2016.
Days before his sacking, he had announced his worth to be Sh275 million.
Early in 2010, then MD James Mulewa was sacked after serving for a year and a half and reason for his sacking was that he received bribes.
Mulewa was investigated by the anti-graft body and charged over receiving bribes. He was to pay Sh74.6 million to the state after being found guilty of acquiring unexplained assets. His accounts were by 2011 frozen with more than Sh25million.
His predecessor, Abdalla Mwaruwa, had been sent home at a round table meeting with the private sector in Mombasa in 2008.
He had been accused of failing to solve the congestion crisis at the port with importers threatening to look for alternatives. He implemented the Kilindini Water Front System said to have caused congestion.
Mwaruwa took over from Brown Ondego who served for six years till 2005 after taking over from Joseph Munyiri who resigned less than a year after his appointment in 1999.
Manduku was arrested on March 2 by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for allegedly unlawfully recommending for the gazettement of the Nairobi Inland Cargo Terminal as a KPA peripheral facility.
He had said KPA would lease facilities within Nairobi, which will then be gazetted, to curb the congestion at the Inland Container Depot.
However, the MD was released without charges after DCI and Director of Public Prosecution failed to agree on the charges.
Those who served two full terms include; John Mturi - father of Catherine Mturi-Wairi; Philip Okundi, Brown Ondego and John Gituma.
Edited by R.Wamochie