Information Minister Against his PS and CCK Board on Director General’s Fate

There is chaos in CCK. And the chaos is being brought by the politics of the day. CCK Board conducted an appraisal on the performance of the CCK Director General. Key areas were relations with staff, strategic and industry performance and overall performance of the Mr Charles Njoroge. The benchmark is and has always been 70% for the DG to qualify for renewal of contract.

The minister, Mr Poghisio, has taken so long to act on the recommendations of the board that the board saw it fit to let the CCK Director General, Mr Njoroge, go on a compulsory leave of 2 weeks so that the issue could be solved amicably between the Board and the Minister. Since when the board wrote out their recommendations and gave out the reasons why the DG’s contract should not be renewed, the DG has been threatening some of the Board Members calling the fact that he has better connections to decide on who sits on the board and who doesn’t.

The PS in the same ministry, Dr Bitange Ndemo, is a member of the board by his position and he agreed with the recommendation of the board. All the 7 members of the board i.e Dr Bitange Ndemo, Ms Alice Munyua, Chairman Okundi, PS Internal Security Francis Kimemia, PS Finance Joseph Kinyua, Karithi Njogu and Matei Mulili. The other board members who were not there because their contract has not been renewed are Eunice Maranya-Ombati and Joe Kamau. Only PS Kinyua was there in person but was represented by Investment secretary (Esther Koimett) when the decision to send the DG on compulsary leave was being made.

Now the Minister, using media houses like Capital FM, is turning this issue into a Raila Vs Kibaki or PNU vs ODM affair. You should see the reporting of Capital FM on Twitter and elsewhere really playing with the facts and turning this into politics. Okundi did not sack the CCK DG, it was the CCK which unanimously recommended that his contract not be renewed and also to avoid tensions in the facility, he should have been given 2 weeks compulsory leave. The longer Mr Njoroge stayed at the helm of the board, the more infighting with fellow CCK employees and also the more tensions were at the facility and it was making the facility not productive. That is why the Board didn’t sack Mr Njoroge but just asked him to stay away until when the issue would have been resolved.

We though here that the move of the Minister to change the position of the board and say that he will renew the contract of the Director General was influenced by PS Kimemia. Mr Kimemia was pushed by the DG and other operatives to change that. The DG even brought the hirelings like Alex Gakuru who attacked the position of the board elsewhere. Alexa has no role on the appointment or even the appraisal and he just have an advisory role on Broadcast matter. The Broadcasting Content Advisory Council which he sits on also didn’t find the performance of the DG satisfactory.

If the CCK Board did not wait for State Corporation Advisory Committee (SCAC) and acted hurriedly, then the minister is equally wrong to have rushed through his decision to renew the contract and not wait for SCAC report.

CCK Board members have meanwhile intimated that they find it disrespecting for the minister to usurp the power of the Board and and turn a professional process into a game of politics.

We have just spoken to CCK Director General, Mr Njoroge, and he says that he will go by what the “appointing authority” has decided. He believes that the Minister is the appointing authority and while he reads what the board thinks through the press, he has not received even a single formal communication from the CCK Board of Directors.