We will stand by Ngunze, KQ board says

KQ board vows to stick with Ngunze despite pressure from pilots to have him quit

The Board of Kenya Airways will not have its chief executive and current leadership leave office voluntarily even as it continues to suffer sustained attacks from pilots.
The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA) has been calling for the resignation of the ‘inexperienced’ Mbuvi Ngunze and the disbandment of the airline’s board – a move that now KQ Chairman Dennis Awori has rebuffed.
In a statement sent to newsrooms Thursday morning, Kenya Airways Board chairman pledged to stand by under pressure Ngunze, saying, “the board of directors fully supports the CEO and the current leadership team of Kenya Airways.”
Mr. Awori was responding to KALPA’s renewed calls to have Ngunze cede his post as the chief executive officer saying he lacked the experience and moral authority to lead the carrier to its glory days.
KQ reported a net loss of Sh26.2billion for the year ended March – the worst performance in the region aviation industry for an airline size as Kenya Airways.
The association has vowed to press on with a pilots’ strike if Awori and Co. do not leave office.
The Board also termed the accusations made by the union’s secretary general Captain Paul Gichinga on staff rationalization procedure as being in bad faith and factually incorrect.
“We have been consistently been communicating in good faith the progress of this program to our stakeholders, including our pilots. All employees at Kenya Airways have been selected based on merit. Accusations made by KALPA are in bad faith and factually incorrect,” said Awori in statement.
Gichinga said Wednesday during a media briefing that the staff rationalization exercise by KQ which started last month was deliberately targeting Kenyans and leaving out foreigners and particularly KLM employees into the system.
The ills KALPA is accusing KQ board include mismanagement of the airline by its leadership that consists of the chairman, some board directors and the CEO who they want step aside and new individuals appointed to the positions in order to steer back the company to profitability.
Other reasons include an address to KQ’s partnership with KLM which it has since said is skewed in favor of KLM. “KLM is not a partner but rather a competitor to Kenya Airways,” said Gichinga. KQ board has since defended that marriage as being ‘commercially viable.’