ICT Cabinet Secretary Owalo fires KBC Acting Managing Director Samuel Maina

Samuel Maina was on Tuesday, December 19, terminated as the Acting Managing Director of KBC. [Courtesy of KBC]

The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) acting Managing Director Samuel Maina's contract has been terminated with immediate effect.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo, in a letter dated Tuesday, December 19,  said Maina had been dismissed for committing the government to pay USD 5 billion (Sh765 billion) in LCIA Arbitration without approval from the ICT Ministry, the Attorney General and Treasury.

Maina will now be replaced by Paul Macharia who will serve for six months in acting capacity.

"I duly appoint Paul Macharia, currently the Communication Economic Expert at the National Communications Secretariat which falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, as the Acting Managing Director...upon the appointment of a substantive Chief Executive Officer pursuant to section 34 of the Public Service Commission Act, No.10 of 2017," Owalo said in the letter addressed to the Chairman of the Board at KBC, Benjamin Maingi.

Further, Owalo has instructed the Board to expedite the process of recruitment of a substantive Managing Director for the media house.

Maina was appointed the Acting Managing Director (MD) at KBC following Naim Bilal's contract expiry in March 2022.

Maina is a former Vice-President of the Kenya Editors’ Guild, who also served as KBC’s Editor-in-Chief.