• MPs Badi Twalib (Jomvu), Omar Mwinyi (Changamwe) and Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki said the port does not benefit residents despite making millions in revenue for the government.
• KPA has remained without a substantive managing director since the resignation over graft allegations of Daniel Manduku on March 26 last year.
Some Coast legislators are lobyying to have someone from the region appointed as the Kenya Ports Authority managing director.
MPs Badi Twalib (Jomvu), Omar Mwinyi (Changamwe) and Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki said the port does not benefit residents despite making millions in revenue for the government.
KPA has remained without a substantive managing director since the resignation over graft allegations of Daniel Manduku on March 26 last year.
Two weeks ago, the KPA board chaired by General (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana, interviewed six candidates and submitted three names to Treasury CS Ukur Yatani to pick one for the post.
Yatani rejected the names, saying the shortlisted candidates had failed to meet the required threshold to be appointed to the lucrative position.
“I have reviewed the list of the names, scores and ranking of the candidates proposed for the appointment as Managing Director, Kenya Ports Authority, and note that all the candidates scored below the desired threshold of 70 per cent in the interview,” Yatani said.
Coast legislators say the government is playing politics with the position.
Mwinyi said Sudi Mwasingo who was operations manager at the port before his transfer to Kisumu Port then Shimoni Port, is qualified to head KPA.
“We say it is our time to be respected. We do not want to have people imposed on us at KPA; we have qualified young men who can lead that institution. Sudi Mwasingo our son is capable,” Mwinyi said.
Sudi is among the six candidates who were interviewed. He was not shortlisted for appointment.
The shortlist had Sylvester Kasuku, who is the former CEO of Lapsset, Gender PS Mwanamaka Mambruki, an economist who served KPA as a principal finance officer and Murshid Rashid, a maritime expert.
Mambruki and Rashid both scored 67 per cent, whereas Kasuku had 63 per cent.
Twalib said they do not only want the MD position, they also want coastal youth to be employed at the Port of Mombasa.
“We don’t have farms to cultivate, but we are blessed with the ocean,” he said.
Faki said they want shared prosperity. “We believe that KPA can be led by a local from this region,” he said.
Since 1979, the MD position has been held by 15 people. The majority are political appointees.
Engineer Rashid Salim, who has worked at KPA for 38 years, was appointed in an acting capacity last year after Manduku’s resignation. He did not apply for the post.
In July 2016, the KPA board appointed Catherine Mturi-Wairi to the coveted top seat. She became the first woman and Coast resident 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.
In June 2018, she was sacked on grounds of incompetency. She was accused of failing to manage congestion at the port and the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi.
Manduku, who was then the CEO of the National Construction Authority, took her place.
(edited by o. owino)