House must quiz Kimunya on KAA job

Rather than shut the door on what has become an unseemly saga, the impunity shown by acting Transport Minister Amos Kimunya in appointing a new managing director for the Kenya Airports Authority last week only deepened the controversy. It showed why reforms are needed to limit interference by the Executive in parastatals.

There is something wrong with the manner in which the new appointment was made, with fingers pointing at State House and the former KAA chief executive George Muhoho.

It is a given that President Kibaki must be consulted before key appointments in parastatals are made and gazetted. And it is also safe to say this time around, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, as the supervisor of ministries, must have been aware of the impending appointment, given that he and Kibaki are now "talking" and pulling together over the Proposed Constitution.

Let us be very clear here that while we do not doubt the new man, Stephen Mwangi Gichuki, is qualified for the job, any claim that he is the most qualified professionally within KAA is up for debate. There are reports that the selection exercise by the board, which saw three names, including his, forwarded to the Transport Ministry, was flawed. There were even calls by Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) that it be nullified.

While we wish Gichuki well in his new appointment, it was always our hope that whoever took the job would do so without this ugly cloud of claims and innuendo hanging over his or her head. As long as they remain, Gichuki will carry the tag of a political appointee throughout his tenure.

By his actions, Kimunya has continued what is now a tradition among Cabinet ministers of riding roughshod over the National Assembly, and forcing through appointments.

His actions echo previous braggadocio as Finance Minister, which brought him into conflict with Parliament and ended in his resignation after censure by the House. It, thus, appears that history is hardly a good deterrent for politicians.

KAA’s board had rejected previous attempts by Mr Muhoho to force through Mr Gichuki’s appointment. It got the backing of Parliament in its recommendation that the position be advertised afresh. What was the overriding interest of the Executive in the appointment of the KAA chief executive that pushed them to ignore the concerns by Parliament and KNCHR to get their man?

Rubber stamps

The KAA board at the heart of the whole saga appears to be displaying a depressing lack of muscle. Why, we ask again, do parastatals have boards of directors if they remain little more than rubber stamps? Whose interest are these boards meant to serve, and who gains from tactics favoured by ministers when making parastatal appointments?

What Kimunya and the board have done is to create unnecessary friction within the KAA management by bending the rules to accommodate Gichuki’s appointment. One of the proposals in the new constitution is that appointments like these be vetted by Parliament to prevent these kinds of shenanigans. But even that may not be enough, unless the boards are freed from the stranglehold of ministers and the Executive, and appointment of directors made based on their professionalism.

Directors who owe fealty to a minister or appointing authority are unlikely to act as a check on the excesses of either the chief executives or the minister.

Apparently, it mattered little to Kimunya that there was a report pending in Parliament regarding the tussle over the top position in KAA, after claims that the new MD was arbitrarily given higher marks than his colleagues to strengthen his candidature. As it is now, the only dissenting institution to the appointment remains Parliament and KNCHR.

But with Kibaki and Raila appearing to have struck a deal to allow the appointment, it is unlikely that we will see tensions whipped up in the House as was the case with former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission director Justice Aaron Ringera. Regardless of that, however, we would like to see the Parliamentary Committee on Transport take Kimunya to task to explain his actions.