The Kenya Airlines Pilots Association (KALPA) has given Kenya Airways CEO Mbuvi Ngunze 48 hours to resign for mismanagement the airline failure to which they will strike. KALPA said today its members will paralyse operations by Thursday if action is not taken against KQ management.
The association blamed the national carrier’s losses on the management’s incompetence and vested interests. Gichinga said they doubt the airline will recover from its Kshh30 billion 2014/15 loss. Mr Ngunze took over the airline in late 2014.
“We reaffirm the KALPA membership vote of no confidence in Ngunze and call for his immediate resignation,” said secretary general Paul Gichinga. “The strike is ‘all tools down’. No aircarft will operate on Thursday.”
KALPA on January 20 gave KQ a one-week ultimatum to sack the entire team of executive directors, saying failure to do so would see them start unspecified action. Paul Gichinga, the union’s secretary general, said that the KQ board which was set to meet on February 4, after which they expected their demands will be met. They extended the ultimatum to give the board more time to act.
“We had a meeting with the KQ chairman and two directors during which we explained our position and gave them the ultimatum letter,” said Mr Gichinga said then.
The union has favoured go-slows and strikes in recent years during disputes with KQ over collective bargaining agreements or sacking of pilots. “We have agreed to be accommodative until the KQ board meets on Thursday next week. However, we still maintain our position and demand that the CEO and his directors must leave the company,” added Mr Gichinga.
KALPA says ineffective management caused the airline to report a Ksh27.5 billion net loss for the year to March 2015, hence its call for the sacking of all directors including chief executive Mbuvi Ngunze.
The union claims that recent managerial changes are superficial and are aimed at retaining the status quo at the airline, which has now reported losses for three years in a row. Alex Mbugua (chief finance officer), Rick Sine (fleet director) and Gerard Clarke (commercial director) have left the company since October last year, while internal managerial reshuffles have been effected.
“It has taken a long time to get Mr Mbugua out of the company. We do not have the luxury of another year for the next director to leave,” Mr Gichinga told.
It’s about time for KQ to have an overhaul. Even the board should go. The government should put in a caretaker management as it constitutes a new board and management team. Otherwise KQ will remain in bad shape for years to come.