KQ Suspends CFO Hellen Mathuka As Flight To Recovery Gets Murkier

The national carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has suspended the chief financial officer (CFO) Hellen Mathuka after a strategy disagreement with the executive.

The CFO was sent on compulsory leave on Friday by an order that was supposed to be kept secret as an ‘internal matter’ according to chairman Michael Joseph.

“She is on leave. I’m a bit disappointed that you people of the media want to report every detail including internal matters at KQ,” Joseph told Business Daily.

Ms Mathuka was appointed to the position in 2017, replacing Dick Murianki who was moved to head the cargo department.

Read: How Titus Naikuni and Kenya Airways Executives Messed the KQ 507 Douala Crash of 2007

This comes at a time the airline has only three months to appoint a new chief executive officer, as the current Mr Sebastian Mikosz announce that he would take early retirement from the carrier at the end of this year.

Normally, the CFO steps in to hold brief as the CEO in case there is a vacuum, a situation the ‘big fish’ seem to be avoiding just in case the search for a CEO goes beyond the end of December.

Apart from the management crisis, the carrier has been fighting to remain afloat in the last few years, as it grapples with loss making. In the half year ended June, KQ made a net loss of Ksh8.5 billion, more than double of the loss made in the same period in 2018.

Read: KQ Cancelled 52 Flights In 18 Days, Delayed 40% Of Successful Departures

The losses are attributed to mismanagement, corruption and a debt load that threatens to bring down the turbulent flight of the carrier.

KQ is 48.9 percent owned by the government of Kenya, while Air France-KLM holds a 7.8 percent stake.

The government has proposed to nationalise KQ, a move that was seconded by MPs in July. The move will see the state run the carrier under a holding company.

Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu