HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 80071,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/80071/?format=api",
"text_counter": 269,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Industrialization",
"speaker": {
"id": 177,
"legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
"slug": "henry-kosgey"
},
"content": "Faced with the concern of the Council members, I directed them to hold further meetings to try and achieve a consensus within the council. Unfortunately, further meetings held by the Council failed to achieve any consensus. The minutes of the meeting show the division within the council. A protest letter to the Chairman that was signed by eight council members out of 13 members and copied to the Permanent Secretary and myself, give the details of the lack of consensus. Further minutes of the meeting of 6th October, show that the council resolved that the lack of consensus requires the Minister to use his discretion in making the appointment. I have the minutes of the meeting of 6th October, showing that they decided that they were not going to change the letter the Chairman had written because it would look a bit odd. Therefore, they said that the Minister could use his discretion to appoint any one of the five since in their opinion, any one of those five was suitable material for appointment as the Managing Director. These candidates would have been subjected to a further vetting process had the Chairman respected the wishes of the council and allowed the process to reach its conclusion. I then exercised my discretion and analyzed the five candidates as follows: Candidate No.1, who was coded 039 and decoded as Abdikadir Omar Aden, scored 70 per cent. He achieved a high score. However, he requested for a salary of Kshs1,084,000. He later indicated that he was willing to have it reduced to Kshs900,000. This is still a high figure because as you know, parastatals are classified or categorized and KEBS is categorized as PC6, a regulatory body with guidelines of the payment of the Chief Executive Officer up to a maximum of Kshs480,000. So, the salary of Kshs900,000 would amount to double what the guidelines provide for. I will table these guidelines with the other documents. The highest earning officers, who are below the Managing Director, namely, directors, earn a salary of Kshs290,000. The next candidate, coded KEBS 016 and decoded as Eva Adeka Oduor, scored 66 per cent. She is currently one of the directors at KEBS and worked closely with the previous Managing Director whom we had issues with and removed. The Board had previously decided that they wanted to source the new Managing Director from outside to give the institution new blood. They had discussed this and minuted it. They then invited two of the current employees in their awards for comparison purposes. The other candidate, coded as KEBS 019 and decoded as John Tuta Mrutu scored 54 per cent. Like KEBS 039, this candidate had requested for a high salary. He is currently earning Kshs1,200,000 and he indicated to the Board that he wished to have a ten per cent salary increase that will bring his pay to Kshs1,320,000. This is about four times the recommended amount. In addition, the candidate is 56 years old and, of course, was almost retiring from his current position. Candidate No.4 coded as KEBS 011 and decoded as Joseph Kipketer Kosgey scored 52 per cent. Although his score placed him at position four, the difference between him and the next person is 2 percentage points and the difference between him and the first one is 8 percentage points. Secondly, his fourth placed position out of 74 or out of the 11 was impressive and was due to what the council members described as a strong financial track record in his previous employment. In addition, it is due to integrity; and he is a reasonably paid man. He is currently earning a salary of Kshs400,000. So, it is within the range. I will table his Curriculum Vitae (CV). I have the CVs of the other candidates as well. I will table his CV to prove that he is qualified. He has a Bachelor of Commerce, CBS, MBA in Strategic Management. Candidate No.5 KEBS 025, decoded as Michael Ochieng Owino scored 57 per cent. Earlier figures even said it was 53 per cent. He became 5th in scoring. However, the difference between him and 011 is five per cent. The difference between him and the first candidate who scored the highest marks is ten points. So, I considered him a bit low. Although in the analysis of the Board, any one of these five candidates was material for the post of Managing Director. At the end of my analysis, I was guided by the following in order to make a decision: The Board had, in fact, debated that within the guidelines, they were willing to negotiate between Kshs500,000 to Kshs700,000. The advertisement did not indicate that this job attracts this salary or scale within the parastatals guidelines. It should have and I think this was an omission on the part of those who advertised. In addition, the council had already discussed and agreed on the salary scale as I have said. This fact is captured in the minutes of those meetings. Therefore, the issue of salary consideration eliminated 039 and 019 as candidates for appointment. It will be ideal if the new Managing Director came from outside the organization so as to bring fresh ideas in the management of KEBS. Candidate No.2, in fact, had one confidential report from the State Corporation which said there were some integrity issues although they were not verified. This had also been expressed by the council and is captured in their minutes. Therefore, using these criteria, I eliminated Candidate KEBS 016 as a possible candidate for appointment."
}