- Three senior managers Sudi Amani Mwasinago (General Manager of Operations), Captain William Ruto (General Manager of Kisumu Port) and Engineer Vincent Sidai (General Manager of Lamu Port) have been shortlisted.
- Others who have made it to the list include; Stanley Chai, Dennis Lewa, Halima Ali Omar, Alex Kazongo, Dr Jane Chepkorir Barus, Rachel Balu Musyoki, Modest Kitimo Kombo, Nicodemus Odera Odongo, and Dr Maingi (only one name given).
Image: FILE
At least 12 individuals have been shortlisted for the interviews for the position of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director.
The Star is privy to information that the interviews, which are being conducted by the KPA’s new board of directors, will be taking place at Boma Hotel in Nairobi’s South C.
Three senior managers Sudi Amani Mwasinago (General Manager of Operations), Captain William Ruto (General Manager of Kisumu Port) and Engineer Vincent Sidai (General Manager of Lamu Port) have been shortlisted.
Mwasinago, a seasoned port professional with over 25 years of logistics and maritime industry experience, joined KPA in 1995 from Kenya Commercial Bank.
Captain Ruto was the General Manager of Operations at the Port of Mombasa before he was transferred to Kisumu in 2021, and Engineer Sidai was the General Manager of Infrastructure at the Port of Mombasa before he was also transferred to head Lamu Port last year.
The three are seen as front-runners having worked and hold senior positions at KPA.
Others who have made it to the list include; Stanley Chai, Dennis Lewa, Halima Ali Omar, Alex Kazongo, Dr Jane Chepkorir Barus, Rachel Balu Musyoki, Modest Kitimo Kombo, Nicodemus Odera Odongo and Dr Patrick Maingi Muinde.
Last month, Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen said the new MD will be named by April 1.
The deadline for the application for the position of MD was on January 19 and the new KPA board of directors was inaugurated on February 13.
The board was mandated to immediately kick off the recruitment process, however, the members have remained tight-lipped on its progress.
KPA has remained without a substantive managing director since the resignation of Dr Daniel Manduku on March 26, 2020, over graft allegations. Manduku had only served for two years since 2018.
The former KPA board, under the chairmanship of General (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana, advertised for the position in April 2020, but the interviews had to be suspended after the outbreak of Covid-19.
In February 2021, the board conducted interviews for six persons out of more than 150 who were said to have applied, however, the former National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani rejected the names of those who had been shortlisted.
General Kibwana’s team interviewed six candidates and submitted three names to Yatani, from which he was to pick one for the job.
However, Yatani wrote back to Kibwana saying the shortlisted candidates had failed to meet the required threshold of 70 per cent to be appointed to the lucrative position.
He subsequently directed the KPA board to undertake a fresh recruitment of the MD and conclude the exercise within 45 days from the date of his letter dated March 2, 2021.
The people who had been shortlisted then were Sylvester Kasuku, who was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (Lapsset) project, former Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Gender Mwanamaka Mabruki and Murshid Rashid, a maritime expert.
Mabruki and Rashid are said to have tied at 67 per cent, whereas Kasuku came in third with 63 per cent.
Since then, there have been two other attempts to recruit a substantive KPA boss, but the process failed to be concluded.
Last year, KPA advertised for the position for a fourth time within a span of three years and set January 19 as the deadline for application.
Last month, the Transport Cabinet Secretary said the new KPA boss will be named on April 1, ending the long three-year process.
He said the board was to be constituted before interviews of the MD could begin.
Since Manduku’s resignation, KPA has had two acting managing directors; Engineer Rashid Salim (2020-2021) and Ambassador John Mwangemi, who is still acting to date.
Murkomen had assured the new board that there would be no interference from external forces because the recruitment of KPA bosses is usually characterized by a lot of lobbying.
“Today is the final stage for the board members’ recruitment and I expect in a week’s time, the process of shortlisting and scheduling interviews will begin. This will be followed by a transition process before we officially name the new MD by April 1,” said Murkomen on February 13.
He added:
“When I came in, I found a lot of interference from outside forces and I would like to end that. We want to get the right person to run different ports in the country.”