KIMAIYO SACKED FROM KAA
(Posted 26th June 2016)
Bad fortunes continue to haunt the once almost almighty Mr. David Kimaiyo, when his appointment as Chairman of the Kenya Airport Authority was revoked by President Uhuru Kenyatta, in other words, when he was handed another sacking.
Kimaiyo’s notoriety rose swiftly after he was made Kenya’s top cop and a series of professional misjudgements and public gaffes in the end led to his removal as Inspector General of Police.
Besides his regular run ins with the media, where he showed his village chief mentality he made a laughing stock of the office of IGP when he decreed that tinted windows in cars were illegal and had to be removed, a move swiftly challenged in courts where, when all was said and done, he suffered yet another crushing defeat, damaging his reputation beyond repair but also leaving the office of IGP stained.
Most notably did conservation circles take exception to Kimaiyo’s appalling behaviour towards Dr. Paula Kahumbu, one of the country’s most respected conservationists, who tried to hand him a petition in regard of one of Kenya’s largest blood ivory seizures in Mombasa.
Kimaiyo at the time kept her waiting for almost the entire day, before, almost in passing, receiving the petition. That act of arrogance was one of the final straws which eventually saw him removed from office, incidentally to overwhelming approval by both public and private sector, both of which were pleased to see this liability removed from the police service.
(Kenya media cartoon published at the time)
When President Kenyatta then appointed him as chairman of KAA the reaction was predictably swift from aviation sources who claimed that Kimaiyo was patently the wrong person for the job, clueless about the aviation industry and as an individual with a tainted professional reputation unacceptable to chair one of Kenya’s most high profile institutions.
Various gaffes by Kimaiyo predictably followed, leaving KAA officials at times reeling and having to repair the PR damage done by their chair.
Appointed at the end of 2014 did his reign at KAA subsequently not last even a year and a half, when the Kenya Gazette Notice of 24th of June revoked his appointment and named highly respected former Chief of Defence Forces General Julius Karangi as the new KAA chairman.
From usually well informed insider sources it was learned that not a tear was shed when Kimaiyo’s sacking became public while in turn a warm welcome awaits Gen. Karangi in his new position.
