NEW APPOINTMENTS TO PARASTATAL BOARDS CONFIRM CONTINUED FRAGMENTATION OF INDUSTRY ADMINISTRATION
(Posted 05th October 2015)
Some 350 appointments to various boards falling under the Tourism Act were announced through a notice in a Special Kenya Gazette issue over the weekend. No information was however available as to who will be chairing those boards and speculation is rife that the added appointments will be made public soon.
Many individuals known to this correspondent are among those now serving on various boards, among them Dr. Mohanjeet Brar of Porini Camps who has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Kenya Tourist Board KTB.
Others are Chris Diaz, Marketing Director of Kenya Airways who will serve on the Brand Kenya Board while Rosemary Mugambi and Mark Gathuri of Serena Hotels have been appointed to Kenya Utalii College Board and the Tourism Fund Board respectively.
Former Managing Director of the Norfolk Hotel Mr. Richard Kimenyi will also serve on the Board of Directors of KTB, no doubt bringing valuable experience to the organization’s top level.
Congratulations are extended to them and all others who, considering the list is 350 names long, cannot be named individually.
However, sections of the Kenyan tourism industry continue to harbour reservations over the fragmentation of the industry’s public sector administration and continue to advocate for a review of the law, to form a single corporate body like a Kenya Tourism Authority, under which all functions now fragmented are bundled.
This, in their and this correspondent’s view would save huge administrative cost as the multiplication of back of house services like Human Resources, Finance, Administration, Legal and related services would operate in singular rather than in plurals. As the aim of the current administration was to cut back on boards, authorities and agencies, this would be a perfect place to start with, providing a remedy to the job creation machine the former coalition government embarked on without any regard to the cost of such proliferation.
Watch this space for breaking and regular tourism news from across Eastern Africa.
