Former Kenya-Re boss Jadiah Mwarania. FILE PHOTO | NMG
in April 2016, he had the reason to believe in his capability.
After
all business numbers looked good, well into the second-half of 2017
where the corporation posted a net profit of Sh1.6 billion compared to
Sh1.56 billion the previous year.
Besides, his
confidence was buoyed by the fact that his predecessor, Eunice Mbogo,
only served for a single three-year contract after the board decided to
let her go.
He dreamed of steering the State corporation to greater heights through his second term that was meant to end in April 2021.
He dreamed of steering the State corporation to greater heights through his second term that was meant to end in April 2021.
But
as fate would have it, Mr Mwarania now finds himself in a hard battle
to keep his job after the Kenya-Re board opted to terminate his services
and temporarily replace him with Michael Mbeshi, the reinsurer’s
property management general manager.
“I reported to work as usual and was told to leave by the
chairman of the board,” Mr Mwarania said in an interview on March 13,
just a day after his departure was announced by Kenya Re through the
Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
“I am shocked. I have not been formally served with a termination letter or told why I have been asked to leave.”
Mr
Mwarania last week moved to court in an attempt to continue his stay at
the Kenya-Re, a corporation in which he served for 28 years.
Filings
in court by both Mr Mwarania and Kenya-Re paint a picture of
long-running tussles between the two parties, which only came to the
fore this month.
The Kenya-Re board and Mr Mwanaria
have set the stage for a legal fight that is promising to be ‘tell it
all’ dispute, with already some well-hidden secrets and letters marked
as confidential forming part of the court documents.
Mr Mwanaria links his woes to attempts to remove the corporation’s board chairman and two directors.
He
says his troubles started the moment he received a letter from Chief of
Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua directing him to
commence the removal of Mr Kemei and board members Maina Mukoma and
Chiboli Shakaba.
“I strongly believe that my compliance
with the directive of the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service was
the genesis of the perceived issues with some members of the board of
directors of the respondent and in particular those who were due for
retirement during the aforesaid AGM of June 16, 2017, as clearly
demonstrated by sequence of events that followed,” says Mr Mwarania in
an affidavit.
Mr Kinyua in a confidential letter dated
June 8, 2017, directed Mr Mwarania to prepare Michael Monari, Hilda
Muchunku and Julius Koros for the election to be held during the AGM.
They were to replace Mr Kemei, Mr Mukoma and Shakaba.
However,
in his response Kenya-Re Board chairman David Kemei has refuted the
claim arguing that the sacked managing director, Jadiah Mwarania, lost
his job over non-performance.
Mr Kemei in a response
to Mr Mwarania’s suit challenging his removal from office claims that
the firm’s performance in the past three years had deteriorated, forcing
the board to intervene.
The board says Mr Mwarania’s
negligence allegedly led to the firm being downgraded from B+ to B in
February 2018, which reduced it from stable rating to vulnerable.
But
even as the parties dig in, Justice Byrum Ongaya of the Employment and
Labour Relations Court challenged Kenya-Re lawyer Chacha Odera to
consider engaging Mr Mwarania’s lawyer in a bid to make the relationship
and even resolution of the case less acrimonius.
“Is
your client not willing to compromise? After school he joined the
company and this is a person who can say ‘I gave the best time of my
life to the company.’ This is bound to be emotional and I propose you
reason together,” the Judge told Mr Odera.
The lawyers representing the two sides have promised to reach out to each other and seek an amicable settlement.
Mr
Mwarania’s ties with the Kenya-Re began way back in 1990 when he joined
the State corporation as a management trainee before rising to become
MD on April 12, 2011.
Prior to that he was general manager, reinsurance operations between April 11, 2010 and April 12, 2011.
Prior to that he was general manager, reinsurance operations between April 11, 2010 and April 12, 2011.
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