KPA Board will convene on Thursday to deliberate on the leadership of the Mombasa port.
MOMBASA, Kenya, Jun 13 – The process of recruiting a new Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority will start soon, Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has said.
Macharia said the newly constituted KPA board, which is chaired by Retired General Joseph Kibwana, will convene on Thursday to deliberate on the leadership of the Mombasa port.
“The Board will take appropriate decision in terms of placing a permanent appointee. They will start the process, which must be competitive since that is what the law requires,” said Macharia.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ongoing International Conference on Transport and Road Research at Whitesands Hotel Mombasa on Wednesday, Macharia revealed that the ousted MD Catherine Mturi-Wairi opted for an early retirement to avoid confrontation.
Last Saturday, Mturi-Wairi wrote to Macharia offering to voluntarily vacate the office.
The KPA Board has on May 30, sent her on compulsory leave after she was accused of incompetence that led to congestion at the Mombasa port container yard.
Macharia said Mturi-Wairi approached the board and offered to take an early exit from the port, which the board granted her.
“A few days ago she opted to take a permanent leave by asking early retirement or an early exit from her contractual obligation, which has been accepted,” said Macharia.
He said the port is currently now doing well in terms of cargo evacuation and ship turn-around time.
“Things are okay, because if you look at what was happening at the port three of our weeks ago, there were loads of containers, about 23,000 at the yard. Today morning, I got the figures, and it is just about 10,000 containers. So, things are efficiently working,” he said.
