Kenya Pipeline CEO got the job on merit, asserts chairman

What you need to know:

  • I don’t understand who exactly is complaining because I have so far even received emails from two of the candidates expressing satisfaction with the process. One of them has sent a similar message to the management too.

Kenya Pipeline has been in the news with several concerns raised about the goings-on at the parastatal. Top on these hot-button issues is the appointment of Mr Joe Sang as the new managing director and reports that delay in completing the new pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi would inflate costs.

Smart Company sought the answers from Kenya pipeline board chairman John Ngumi:

The appointment of Mr Joe Sang to head Kenya pipeline has been criticised by many as riddled with nepotism and favouritism. How do you rate the selection process having chaired the board that gave him the job?

Mr Ngumi: The process was exceedingly transparent. I saw the candidates and in fact received all their applications. We have been through a very careful process since last year and we had 64 applicants who expressed interest and after a two-stage process we ended up with six who we interviewed.

Every person at the panel gave their scores and we had known the kind of attention this kind of hiring would attract so we involved the Inspectorate of State Corporations who tallied the results and that is how we ended up with Mr Sang.

I don’t understand who exactly is complaining because I have so far even received emails from two of the candidates expressing satisfaction with the process. One of them has sent a similar message to the management too.

CoFEK had expressed fears that Mr Sang could have got this job because he is related to the Energy Cabinet Secretary Alfred Keter. Are they related?
I made it a point to ask that question to both Mr Sang and Mr Keter and the answer was a categorical ‘no’. I cannot go beyond that. They know each other as most Kenyans who come from common places know each other but the answer is no.

The CS came in December while Joe had come earlier in the year, so he (Keter) had no involvement in his recruitment. If you have evidence to the contrary please tell me but am certain about that.

What about claims that this company is largely dominated by people from some ethnic communities and that Joe happened to come from one of these communities?

That is very untrue and I have read it on social media with dismay. I have a list here of the top 19 managers in this firm. This list as you can see has four Kalenjins, four Kambas, three Luhyas, two Kikuyus, two Luos, two Merus and two Kisiis staff members in the senior ranks. You tell me, is this the face of Kenya? We are a public company and we are very keen on having a national outlook.

We are going to do several more recruitment and you will be seeing them in the daily papers. We emphasise on the need to balance regionally, gender and include persons with disability. We hire on merit and that has never changed.

Looking at the management changes at KPC, this will be the fourth CEO in three years. Aren’t you worried that the turnover is too high and are KPC leadership problems settled now?
It is true that we have had a high turnover at the top for various reasons which we may not have been able to control. We have now settled that and with the key focus now being our Vision 2025, the expansion plans and the delivery of key services across the sector, we are settled. We want to get straight to work.

Is there a delay in the Mombasa–Nairobi pipeline and what will be the financial impact to KPC?

Yes we have a delay. The challenges behind it started by the procurement process which was contested even in court. We have had a challenge coordinating the contractor and the consultant and the board has been really concerned on just how to make the two work in a seamless way.

We decided last year to force the two to sit down. We could have done better to make them work together but at the moment our focus is how to beat the 30th September deadline.

This line is critical for us because even our line from Sinendet to Kisumu which is now on trial will rely very much on the new 20-inch pipe from Mombasa to enable us triple the supply to the Western region.

On the cost, there is major misconception. Virtually all the costs are denominated in dollars. Secondly 50-60 per cent of our income is in dollars.

The shilling depreciated from the 80 to 100 to the dollar but because we are earning in dollars, there will be no additional dollars we will pay. We are hedged by the fact that we earn in dollars.

Before I forget, we are not funded by the exchequer and 35 per cent of this project has been done by our internal cash flow and we only began to draw from the loan last week so there will be no way we are going back to ask from money from the exchequer and were not even guaranteed by the government, we just got the approval.