Port boss faces the sack if he fails to fight graft and boost efficiency

Kenya Ports Authority managing director Gichiri Ndua has been given a sack notice unless he improves efficiency at the Mombasa port.

Transport and Infrastructure Secretary Michael Kamau on Tuesday said Mr Ndua would be sent home unless he can also fight corruption at the port, which is the leading export and import point for Kenya and several other countries in East Africa.

The government has been keen to expand the port as well as the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Last month, President Kenyatta ordered the time taken to transport goods from the port to Malaba be reduced to five days.

“We told the managing director that we have given you this authority; this is your undated letter of sacking. Just go and put the date,” Mr Kamau told the Senate Committee on Energy and Transport at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

The government wants cartels at the port and the airport purged to improve efficiency and pave the way for the expansion of these two key installations.
According to Mr Kamau, the two institutions were under a “tight stranglehold of the cartels”.

“It is very important that we reclaim our institutions,” he said. One way of achieving this was by putting each of the institutions under a central command. All government officials at the port and at JKIA were made answerable to their respective managing directors. This, Mr Kamau said, had made it possible for contraband to be detected at the Port of Mombasa.

“How come before we went to the port (with all these measures), there was nobody that was being arrested? All of a sudden, there are people being arrested with ivory and drugs,” he said. “The port used to operate without any central command…the customs people used to come at their own time, the Kenya Bureau of Standards inspectors also came at their own time. Now, technically everyone is answerable to their bosses; but they administratively answer to the MD of the KPA.”

He added that there were 7,000 “redundant employees” at the port.

If the government gets its way, a massive layoff could be in the offing.

According to Mr Kamau, police officers, baggage handlers and customs officials worked in cahoots with criminals to frustrate efficient service provision at Kenya’s main airport. He said, for instance, that although the airport had 500 police officers, it had failed to stop the rampant theft of passenger luggage.

“We have to bring JKIA under central command. The MD KAA will be the first one to be sacked if things don’t change,” said Mr Kamau.

Taita Taveta MP Danson Mwazo asked the government to tighten the noose on cartels.