Macharia Irungu Removed as KPC Head

Macharia Irungu’s three-year term at the state corporation has come to an end after the board of the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) decided not to renew his contract.

The three-year contract that Dr. Irungu signed on December 2, 2019, has been canceled, according to the board, because he did not exhibit interest in extending or renewing it, the board writes in a letter to Dr. Irungu.

“There was no expression of interest on your part to have the contract extended or renewed despite an invitation by the board to do so via the letter dated December 9, 2022, written to you by the board chairperson. Your term lapsed on January 1, 2023, and you are no longer an employee of Kenya Pipeline Company Limited,” said recently appointed KPC board chairperson Faith Bett Boinett in a letter dated January 13, 2023.

In January 2020, Dr. Irungu took over at KPC, succeeding Mr. Hudson Andambi, who had been serving as the interim managing director since December 2018, when former MD Joe Sang and other top administrators were detained on suspicion of corruption.

Dr. Irungu’s tenure had been changed to five years, renewable subject to performance, the mandatory retirement age, and the rules governing the nomination of accounting officers to the state businesses, according to Ms. Okuthe in a separate letter to the managing director. This indicates that Dr. Irungu was expected to continue serving in accordance with the letter from the previous board chair.

Dr. Irungu previously held the position of Managing Director at Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation. He has worked in the industry for about three decades and has also held the position of commissioner for the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority.

Dr. Irungu took over after a difficult year marked by leadership disputes that caused several middle-level employees to fill in for senior managers who had been detained over the alleged misappropriation of public funds.