There is growing friction within higher ranks of the Kenya Commercial Bank’s (KCB) leadership hierarchy after Board of Directors secretly extended Joshua Oigara’s tenure by a year amid a litany of integrity issues bedeviling the embattled Chief Executive Officer.
Oigara has been at the helm of the government-owned bank for nine years.
Under his tenure, Oigara facilitated issuance of Sh1.2 billion loan facility to Weston Hotel owned by Deputy President William Ruto which is said to be sitting on government-owned land.
Oigara’s name prominently featured in the Kencon Sacco’s scam revealing through an internal audit involving Sh43 million contract to construct access road for sacco’s housing project in Runda.
The matter is still under active investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) at Mazingira House.
His extension will lapse on December 31, this year.
In 2018, the bank re-appointed Oigara for a four-year term which was to end last year.
He was first appointed to the position in January 2013.
The bank, which also operates in neighbouring Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, posted a growth of 131 per cent in net profits to Sh25.2 billion in the first nine months of 2021, following a significant reduction in bad loans.
In Oigara’s nine-year term the bank has benefited from the performance-based pay that has cemented his position among Kenya’s top-paid executives.
In 2019, he was awarded a 6.6 per cent pay rise and allowances after a year of record profit for the listed lender ties bonus payments to achievement of multiple metrics, including the profitability of the group.
His pay increase came mainly in the form of a higher bonus of Sh180 million that went up from Sh147 million in 2017, and which more than compensated for a Sh20 million drop in allowances to Sh10 million.
Oigara’s basic salary rose by Sh3 million to Sh68 million while gratuity increased by Sh1 million to Sh14 million.
His non-cash benefits that include medical insurance cover, club membership and professional indemnity cover remained flat at Sh1 million.
His higher bonus (and total pay package) was in tandem with KCB’s 21.8 per cent growth in profit last year to Sh24 billion, the highest-ever earnings reported by a Kenyan bank.
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