KCAA chairman appointment comes under legal threat

KENYA CIVIL AVIATION DRAWN INTO CONTROVERSY OVER CHAIRMAN’S APPOINTMENT

(Posted 17th January 2014)

The appointment of another loser from the March 2013 general election as chairman of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has met with swift opposition and threats by sections of the aviation fraternity to sue government, should the appointment – like several others in recent weeks – not be revoked and the applicable law followed to the letter.

It was pointed out to this correspondent by a Nairobi based aviation source, that the new law governing the appointment of a chairman of KCAA, now requires a job search and an appointment based on competence and the principle of competition, while the gazetted appointment by Transport cabinet secretary Kamau refers to the old law which was repealed last year.

This latest twist in the appointment of board chairs comes for close observers as no surprise and President Kenyatta’s recent appointments were too mirrored in some controversy, in part over the blatant gender imbalance of nominees, some of which have in the meantime been withdrawn after civil society and the fourth estate, aka the Media, launched repeated broadsides. ‘That process was changed to inject some level of competence when the chair of the hugely important Civil Aviation Authority is appointed. We no longer want to see political castaways to be rewarded for their failure to win an election, we want a competent person at the top of KCAA who understands aviation. Not someone who needs education on aviation affairs for the entire term before replaced with another one who knows nothing about our sector’ contributed a regular source when discussing the matter.

Meanwhile is intense lobbying going on vis a vis the recruitment of a substantive Managing Director of the Kenya Airport Authority it was learned as the recruitment process is reportedly reaching a decisive phase soon. Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across Eastern Africa.