NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 29 – The appointment of former electoral commission Chief Executive Officer Ezra Chiloba to head the Communications Authority (CA) touched off raw nerves, with critics accusing the government of recycling officials accused of mismanagement.
Chiloba was named the Director General of the Communications Authority Tuesday after defeating more than 50 applicants, according to the authority’s board.
But as soon as the announcement was made, social media was awash with all manner of comments from far and wide.
First it was former IEBC Commissioner Roselyne Akombe who fled the country soon after the 2017 elections and controversial Miguna Miguna who lives in Canada after deportation.
“And with the appointment of the new CAA Director General, 2022 is sealed,” Akombe said without elaborating.
Miguna tweeted, “Chiloba Must Go!”
Narc Kenya party leader Martha Karua wondered why the board settled for Chiloba, after keeping Mercy Wanjau on an acting capacity for long.
“??????? After keeping Mercy acting beyond the allowed legal maximum and subjecting her to multiple interviews. Merit or political expediency,” she posed.
Chiloba replaces Francis Wangusi who left office unceremoniously in 2019.
When he joined IEBC, the soft spoken bespectacled Chiloba was a favourite among the youth who baptised him Chilo-bae. But it was not until after the 2017 elections that his name became an almost permanent feature on newspapers as a supremacy war played out between him and the commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
At the time, Chebukati wanted him out to facilitate an audit of the expenses for the electoral process.
Chebukati eventually suspended him to facilitate the audit of the expenditures.
He however, filed a case in court contesting his suspension but chose to resign later.
He then went farming in his Kitale farm where he largely kept a low profile.
Chiloba is a lawyer and policy consultant and principal partner with Chil and Kemp consultancy.
He holds an undergraduate degree in Law from the University of Nairobi and a Master of Arts degree from Central European University in Hungary. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Program Management from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
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