Elvis has left the IEBC building

Following the dramatic resignation of Commissioner Roselyn Akombe mid last week, the immediate thought that came to mind to summarize the sensational exit was:“Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and goodnight!”

The phrase “Elvis has left the building” was often announced at the end of Elvis Presley’s concerts to encourage rabid fans to accept that there would be no further encores, and that they should pack up and go home. The phrase has morphed from its American pop culture origins into a generally accepted euphemism for someone’s departure, dramatic or otherwise.

On August 14th 2017, shortly after the elections, I opined in this column that the corporate governance structure of Kenyan constitutional commissions and the Interim Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in particular, was a unique mongrelization of the executive and oversight roles of a body corporate. The IEBC Act creates a commission made up of 8 members and a chairperson. The Act also creates the role of a secretary to the commission, who shall be the accounting officer of the institution.

A look at the act makes for fairly interesting reading. At no point is the chairman referred to as an executive chairman, nor are the commissioners defined as executive. This executive role can be viewed as being derived from both Article 88 (4) of the Constitution read together with Section 4 of the IEBC Act which states the role of the commission is to oversee the mandate of providing elections and referendums as well as and determining electoral boundaries in Kenya. Section 5(4) of the IEBC Act then gives the executive power to the commissioners when it states that the chairperson and members of the commission shall perform their functions as provided in the Constitution, and the secretariat shall perform the day to day administrative functions. And just for avoidance of doubt, Section 7 (2) of the IEBC Act, states that the commissioners are expected to serve on a full time basis.

Section 10 creates the role of the secretary to the commission who, under subsection (7) (a),shall be the Chief Executive Officer, under subsection (7) (c) shall be the accounting officer and, most importantly, under subsection (7) (e)(i) shall be responsible for executing the decisions of the commission.

The act thus blesses the CEO with full time commissioners whose decisions he is responsible for executing, while he remains the accounting officer for the financial outcomes of the organization. But the events of last week, following Ms. Akombe’s resignation and the Chairman Chebukati’s stinging indictment of his own commissioners displayed the inherent weaknesses in the mongrel governance structure.

In an ordinary public or private corporate institution, a non-executive board provides oversight and strategic direction to the executive management who undertake the day-to-day operations. By separating the two, it creates a layer of accountability for the executives as well as a point of reference for major decisions that need “independent” eyes to probe the justification and rationale that guided the thinking behind the decision. Equally important, it allows the chief executive a safe landing in the event that external stakeholders question the decision, as the CEO can simply point upwards and say:“the board approved the resolution.” If you need a recent illustration, look no further than the recent case of the Kenya Airways chairman Michael Joseph who vigorously defended the airline’s CEO’s decision to hire five Polish nationals.

However in the case of the IEBC, Chairman Chebukati is, for all intents and purposes, a CEO of an executive team of commissioners who do not have the safety structure of an oversight board to provide strategic guidance and independent thinking that questions those very decisions.

Those decisions must be taken in utmost good faith. Article 250(9) of the Constitution of Kenya states that a member of a commission, or the holder of an independent office, is not liable for anything done in good faith in the performance of a function of office. This is further entrenched in Section 15 of the IEBC Act that provides the same protection from personal liability for commissioners and officers for acts done in good faith. If Ms. Akombe and Mr. Chebukati’s allegations last Wednesday are to be believed, then good faith has also left the building. All the commissioners and the officers of the IEBC must remember that they will be personally liable for any action, claims or demands that may arise in future for decisions taken in bad faith.

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Twitter: @carolmusyoka

Kenya Airways Rises From The Ashes

[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]OTP in airline speak means on time performance. Kenya Airways (KQ) has been operating on a fairly good OTP for departures and arrivals over the last 3 months of my frequent regional usage within the East African Community circuit. I mentioned this to the flight purser on my KQ flight from Nairobi to Kigali via Bujumbura a couple of weeks ago. We were chatting while parked on the tarmac on a brief stopover at the dusty pink colored Bujumbura airport. He was amazingly sanguine about KQ’s future, something I had not seen in a long time as I often chat with the staff on the flights who have been typically morose following the poor financial fortunes of the airlines in the recent past. So Juma, as I’ve chosen to call the flight purser for now, explained that the airline has set an OTP target for departure as 15 minutes before the scheduled time so that they can make allowances for delays caused by flight engineering or operations.Out of 8 flights in 4 weeks I only suffered one delay for an Entebbe to Nairobi flight and was informed of the same via a text message as I left for the airport.

Juma mentioned that staff morale is climbing following retrenchments of about 150 last year. Why, I asked? He said that staff were getting incentives for ticket sales, and quite clearly for on board duty free sales given the renewed vigor that I have observed cabin crew flogging those overpriced items lately. “All our pilots are Kenyans,” he said chest bursting with a pride that almost made the buttons of his red blazer pop off as he pointed out another KQ plane that had just landed from Kigali en route to Nairobi via Bujumbura. “Can you see how busy we are, we have two planes on the tarmac of a foreign airport simultaneously!’’

I shared his infectious enthusiasm. KQ had finally reported an operating profit of Kshs 897 million in the financial year ending March 2017. This was compared to the operating loss of Kshs 4 billion the previous financial year. Clearly something had started to fundamentally change in KQ even before the June 2017 appointment of the new Managing Director Sebastian Mikosz, an acclaimed turnaround expert.

Unfortunately for Mr. Mikosz, disgruntled staff leaked a memo last week revealing the appointment of five senior expatriate managers. At a hastily convened press briefing following the contents of the memo’s publication in mainstream media, Mr. Mikosz seemed to be at pains to say how long the 5 managers, all from Poland and former work colleagues of his at his last employer Lot Airlines, would be staying in Kenya. While explaining what looks like an OTP (Only Through Poles) turnaround strategy he told the media that they were initially hired for 3 months. I admire the five senior managers who would quit full time paying jobs at a recently turned around airline in a fast growing European economy to take up a shortterm contract in a piddling, election bickering East African backwater.

In keeping with good corporate governance, his chairman Michael Joseph stepped in to take one for the team. “ I was involved, together with the board, the HR members of the Board, on the decision to support Sebastian in bringing this team here, I personally approved it. It was because those guys, Sebastian knows those guys expertise and that they can hit the ground running. They are not here to take anybody’s jobs; they are here to provide Sebastian with the knowledge and information he needs in order to turn around the airline.”

It’s great that the board chairman (himself a former expatriate – how’s that for visuals?) quickly stepped up to provide much needed support for the managing director on an emotive issue of staff at a national flag carrier. Mr. Mikosz will need a lot of such support especially when some disgruntled staff will continue to use inappropriate means to embarrass him such as leaked memos to the media. There will certainly be significant internal resistance to both him and his “pentagon” as they execute the painful changes that are required to turn around the company. As a rabidly proud Kenyan, I support what the board and management are doing to restore the pride in the Pride of Africa. I do however wish that they would be sensitive to the not so subtle messaging that adopting an “OTP strategy” demonstrates: ‘We couldn’t find other nationals, let alone Kenyans, to do what needs to be done.’

[email protected]: @carolmusyoka[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]