Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni will today afternoon become
the first of the unsuccessfully ousted directors at the East African PortlandCement Company (EAPCC) to seek a fresh term at the company.
Mr Naikuni will be seeking re-election at the firm’s AGM
amid a push by the government, which owns 25.3% of Portland Cement, to have new
people on the firm’s board.
The KQ CEO has served on the EAPCC’s board since July 2007
and was one of the eight directors that then acting Industrialization Minister
Amason Kingi accused them of poor governance and had them ousted from the firm
last December.
His re-election bid is definitely a testing ground on
whether the government has given up overhauling the cement firm’s board or is
willing to reignite its pursuit to having new directors steer EAPCC.
Sources at the Industrialization ministry, which represents
the government’s interest in the cement company, said that the State is still devoted
to getting new faces on the board, raising interest in how it will take part in
today’s election (Friday) at the AGM.
The firms’ directors, including Chairman Mark ole Karbolo,
Kephar Tande, Naikuni and lawyer Hamish Keith, moved to court earlier this year
to block their removal from the board following Mr Kingi’s order.
The court
reinstated them in a legal battle that also saw the president revoke the replacement
of Mr Karbolo.
The government will therefore require votes especially from
the National Social Security Fund, which has a 27% share, to push its agenda
both at EAPCC’s boardroom and the shareholder meeting.
Bamburi Cement and
its parent company Lafarge have a 41.7 per cent stake in the firm
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