Kenya Re to employ two top managers before IPO in April

IPO:
The sale of Kenya Reinsurance Corporation shares is likely to start in April as scheduled, Investments secretary Esther Koimett has said. However, the Government has adopted a wait-and-see attitude after the firm yesterday announced its intentions to fill the vacant positions of managing director and head of finance. The holders of the two posts were sacked last month to pave the way for investigations into allegations of financial impropriety.
The sale of the corporation’s 60 million shares was expected to be concluded by end of April but might be delayed to give the company time to reorganise its management. On January 11, the Kenya Re board terminated Mr Johnstone Githaka’s and Mr John Kinyua’s contracts. They were respectively managing director and head of finance.
Both were under suspension pending investigations.

Summarily sacked :
“They were summarily sacked and now the board has opened the positions to the public,” said Mr Evans Amalemba Juma, the acting managing director. According to Ms Koimett the need to fill the positions before listing is meant to appease investors by adding certainty in the corporation’s affairs. “We could not list with an acting managing director,” she said.
Those interested in the job have until February 16 to submit their applications to the board vie e-mail to Business Ideas, the company executive search and selection partners.
Ms Koimett and Mr Juma are optimistic the listing of the shares will go on as scheduled.
The sale is expected to raise money to cover part of the Sh18 billion budgetary deficit for the 2006/07 financial year.

The Government has already raised Sh4.5 billion from the sale of Mumias Sugar Company shares.

“We are sure it will go through before the end of April,” said Mr Juma, echoing earlier sentiments by Finance minister Amos Kimunya when he disclosed that the Government had launched investigations on corruption allegation at the parastatal.