Kenya Airports Authority MD Lucy Mbugua reinstated even as consumer lobby warns of legal battle

Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director Lucy Mbugua was in February sent on compulsory leave to allow probe over allocation of duty-free shops.

Embattled Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director Lucy Mbugua has been reinstated after a month in the dark following a Sh9.5 billion VAT scandal.

Ms Mbugua was sent on compulsory leave last month alongside three senior officers at KAA to pave way for investigations. “The board has undertaken its preliminary investigations within the time-frame set out in the Human Resource Manual. Based on preliminary investigations, the board has resolved to recall the managing director and the three senior managers,” a statement sent to newsrooms signed by KAA Chairman David Kimaiyo said. The board however, did not reveal findings from the investigations.

But this has opened a new battlefront with the Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek), which dismissed the KAA investigations. “We are aware that there has been a lot of lobbying going on to ensure she gets back her job. She may have won the first round but she should brace herself for a legal battle ahead,” Cofek Secretary General Stephen Mutoro said, Tuesday.

“We doubt the credibility of the investigations done by the KAA board. The board cannot absolve her based on preliminary investigations but by an independent external audit,” Mr Mutoro said.

Apart from Ms Mbugua, KAA had on February 19 also suspended General Manager (Finance), John Thumbi, the Corporation’s Secretary Catherine Kisila and Procurement Manager Obadia Orora.

Her recall now means Ms Mbugua may have been let off the hook days after she gave her defence that named the Attorney General, the Ministry of Transport, the KAA board, and the Authority’s legal officer as having shared with her the responsibility of approving multi-billion tender documents full of inconsistencies.

Ironically, in her defence, she said she was acting on the instructions of the same board that sent her home. Ms Mbugua said she relied on technical advice from the Attorney General and her Finance and Human Resource departments to make decisions.

Her troubles are linked to two main contracts, the duty free shop contract awarded to Swiss firm Dufry International AG, a global travel retailer and the Greenfield project that entails the construction of a new terminal complex at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).