Heads roll at KPA as 16 senior officers moved

A section of the Kenya Ports Authority yard at the Mombasa Port. FILE PHOTO |

The Kenya Ports Authority on Wednesday made staff changes amid graft probe at the parastatal.

A total of 16 senior officials were moved including at least three who are under investigation over the Sh40 billion Kipevu scandal.

The three include Head of Procurement and Supplies Anthony Nyamancha, Tender Opening and Evaluation Committee Secretary Aza Dzengo and William Tenay, a member of the due diligence team.

Mr Nyamancha has been moved to Kampala, Uganda where he will work as the head of liason markets. Mr Dzengo has been appointed as the head of procurement and supplies in an acting capacity while Mr Tenay has been named the head of project development.

Other officials who have been redeployed include Kennedy Nyaga, who will be project manager at the Lamu port, Peter Masinde, who will head the inland container depot in Nairobi while Tony Kibwana has been named as the acting head of security services.

Mirriam Khamis has been moved to Nairobi where she will head the ICT department, Millicent Omollo will head of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) reconciliation at the inland container deport in Nairobi.

Onesmus Ngumbao has been named as the acting head of management accounting.

The changes were made by the board of directors, according to a letter seen by the Nation.

Some sources at KPA, who sought anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the press, told Nation that the changes were made to fill vacancies that had been advertised earlier this year.

KPA had in February advertised several vacancies in the security service department, human resources, operations, finance, corporate services, board and legal services, administration and the infrastructure development division.

Bernard Osero, KPA head of corporate affairs, declined to comment on the changes.

He said, “official communication over the matter has not been given out, thus I cannot comment on the matter.”

The changes are expected to increase effectiveness at the parastatal where 14 out of 16 heads of department were redeployed last year.

The 2018 reorganisation was done by the government in a bid to improve movement of cargo from Mombasa to Nairobi via the Standard Gauge Railway.

Some cartels had been accused of sabotaging the Sh327 billion Mombasa-Nairobi railway line that was launched with fanfare in 2017 and failed to attract enough business.
Business has since been reported to have been moving on smoothly.