Allegations have emerged that some top Kenya Ports Authority officials and directors are selling promotions in a scam that has seen senior positions remain vacant after those interested failed to raise the bribe. As a result of the corrupt deals, over 600 employees have acted in senior positions for eight months and others seven years.
According to KPA’s human resources manual, any position falling vacant is required to be advertised within six months. The cartels, who are benefitting from the hawking of promotions have ignored this requirement and are not bothered to implement it, a source at KPA’s human resource department said. There are also claims that there is a secret recruitment of staff who are hired on temporary basis. The staff are posted to Nairobi ICD and other smaller ports, but later secretly get confirmed on permanent and pensionable terms after money exchanges hands.
The issue popped up during a parliamentary committee meeting probing denial of KPA employees overtime payments and delayed implementation of a collective bargaining agreement that gave workers a pay rise of 10pc backdated to 2020. Dock Workers Union secretary general Simon Sang lamented about the skewed recruitment and promotions at the port of Mombasa, saying the matter has demoralised staff and affected productivity. Port officials had a hard time explaining why promotions had not been effected and failure to pay workers’ bonuses for the fiscal year 2018/2019. The rot at the port is blamed on failure by the government to hire a substantive managing director to oversee operations at the critical facility.
Daniel OgutuActing MD John Mwangemi is said to be afraid to commit himself on serious management decisions, claiming he is only acting for a while and therefore unauthorised to conduct certain things. Human resources general manager Daniel Ogutu has reportedly taken advantage of Mwangemi’s fence-sitting approach to fill the void and purport to be in charge. However, Ogutu’s style of management has not gone down well with fellow general managers, some of whom have declared war on him affecting smooth running of port operations. Ogutu proudly tells those who care to listen that his contract which is about to expire will automatically be renewed as he is well connected, allegedly being from Bondo, the home of Raila Odinga. At the same time, the port is also without chairman of the board of directors. Since the exit of Joseph Kibwana months ago causing serious management gaps now exploited by cartels to further personal interests
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