Seen as part of its turnaround strategy, the Kenya Airways’ board has appointed Dick Murianki as the acting group finance director – taking over from Alex Mbugua.
According to Daily Nation, he has been part of the management team at the airline for over 12 years, and is moving over from being the airline’s GM for cargo.
Prior to joining the airline, Murianki was an accountant and business consultant at Ernst and Young (now EY) for eight years.
Meanwhile, former transport principal secretary, Joseph Nduva Muli, had resigned from the board and been replaced by Irungu Nyakera.
Observers saw these changes as being part of the conditions laid down by government before it would approve another bail out for the financially-strapped national carrier – and where it demanded an overhaul of the senior management.
And the bail out was desperately needed after the airline’s net loss for the year to March 2015 was almost eight times the loss posted in the previous year.
This, according to the management, was because of major losses following the cancellation of flights to West Africa after the Ebola outbreak, and what it said was “stiff competition” from UAE airlines.
But last year’s investigation by a select committee of the Senate revealed a lack of adequate internal control systems, which left the airline open to fraud being committed by staff members, reported Daily Nation.
Also, management’s previous plans for a multi-billion investment in Boeing “Dreamliner” aircraft were described as being “untimely”.
