Sacked Kenya Airways officers had access to company data for five months

KQ Human Resource Manager Alban Mwendar responds to question when he appeared before Senate Committee Inquiry on KQ Affairs at Parliament on Tuesday 03/11/15.PHOTO:BONIFACE OKENDO

Kenya Airways (KQ) retained the names of former senior staff in its database for 132 days thus compromising the safety of the company's sensitive data.

The airline's senior managers yesterday owned up to having failed to remove the names from their records even as the Senate committee looking into the woes facing the company, expressed fears that the anomaly could have been abused by the former employees.

The Senate Special Committee said the failure to immediately bar the sacked officers from accessing the company's official records had the capacity to expose the airline to financial leakages besides other risks.

Committee Vice Chairman Mutahi Kagwe (Nyeri) led other members in demanding to know from KQ management what assurances the company had that the sacked employees had not tampered with the financial security of the airline.

"That is a very serious issue. Having employees who have resigned or had their jobs terminated remain active on KQ's data system is a management risk to the airline. The information accessed by those who had left employment could have been used for sinister reasons," Mr Kagwe said.

The anomaly was realised by the Auditor General Edward Ouko in his report that noted some ex-employees were in the airline's system, five months after leaving employment.

However, KQ's Information System Director Kevin Kinyanjui told the committee that the airline systems were not tampered with by the ex-employees.

He said auditors had ruled out foul play on the part of the former workers within the stated period.

"External auditors gave us an assurance that the affected accounts had not been used for any fraudulent activities. We are assured of that," Mr Kinyanjui, accompanied by KQ Marketing Director Chris Diaz and Human Resource Director Alban Mwenda, said.

Kinyanjui said other than the five former employees who were in the system for the stated period, a person in charge of the airline in Bangok failed to notify the head office in Nairobi about some of staff who had since left the airline, but still remained in the system.

Senators present included James Orengo (Siaya), Peter Mositet (Kajiado), Boni Khalwale (Kakamega) and Omar Hassan (Mombasa).