Suspended National Oil boss takes to Twitter to defend her record

Corporate News

Sumayya Athmani, suspended National Oil managing director. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By KIARIE NJOROGE

In Summary

• Sumayya Athmani listed her successes on the social media site, firing an indirect salvo at the board that sent her on compulsory leave.
• Ms Athmani further said that during her tenure, the company had received unqualified audit reports.

Suspended National Oil Company (Nock) chief executive Sumayya Athmani on Wednesday took to Twitter to defend her tenure, saying that under her leadership the State-owned corporation had more than tripled its profit and doubled its assets.

Ms Athmani, who has been at the helm of the oil distributor for the past five years, listed her successes on the social media site, firing an indirect salvo at the board that sent her on compulsory leave.

The Daily Nation reported that Ms Athmani was sent on leave to pave the way for investigations into affairs of the State-owned oil marketer that reportedly made a loss of Sh270 million in the six months to December last year.

“My performance at Nock under 5 years: increase in total assets from Sh5.8 billion to Sh12 billion; fixed assets from Sh2.2 billion to Sh6.5 billion; turnover from Sh15 billion to Sh30 billion,” she tweeted.

“Increase in operating profit from Sh180 million to Sh504 million; volumes 187 million litres to 300 million litres; thanks to my able team.”

The Business Daily could not verify the figures or the alleged loss as National Oil does not release its financial statements to the public.

Ms Athmani further said that during her tenure, the company had received unqualified audit reports.

She was in her second term in office, running for a period of three years, after then Cabinet secretary for Energy and Petroleum, Davis Chirchir, renewed her contract starting April 1, 2014.

MaryJane Mwangi, who has been working as the general manager in charge of downstream operations, has been appointed as the acting chief executive officer.

National Oil is the government’s key player in the downstream petroleum market that is dominated by foreign distributors like Total and Vivo. It operates a total of 99 service stations.

In the nine months to September last year, National Oil saw its share of local petroleum sales jump to 5.7 per cent from 4.7 per cent according to data from the Petroleum Institute of East Africa.

Ms Athmani’s suspension comes weeks after fellow parastatal head Flora Okoth was ousted from the helm of the Kenya Pipeline Corporation where she was acting MD.

The changes in the energy sector also come after the appointment of new Cabinet secretary Charles Keter in November.