Uganda revives stalled CEO hiring at Kenya Pipeline

This paves the way for the resumption of the recruitment process, which stalled midway after KPC directors differed over the legality of the CEO search without a reconstituted board in line with the company’s revised Articles of Association.

Under the revised articles, Kenya gave Uganda concessions, including two board seats, after the neighbouring country threatened to walk away from buying shares in KPC’s initial public offering (IPO) because of a lack of authority in the running of the company.

The articles followed Kenya’s sale of a 65 percent stake in the firm and its listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

While on the board, Uganda will have the powers to approve the hiring and firing of the CEO, KPC fuel transport tariffs, part of the board changes and changes to the firm’s dividend policy.

KPC’s board on May 7, 2026, put out an advertisement seeking to recruit a managing director following the resignation of Joe Sang, just weeks after the company’s shares started trading on the NSE.

 Mr Sang left amid a fuel scandal that saw three senior public officials step down. The company’s chief finance officer, Pius Mwendwa, is the acting managing director.

The search for the new CEO triggered cracks in KPC’s boardroom over whether the firm should have initiated the recruitment of a new managing director without a fully reconstituted board that includes Uganda’s representatives.

The split froze the hiring after the firm failed to shortlist and interview the tens of candidates who sought the job.

The firm on Thursday confirmed that the entry of Uganda to the board will restart the process of getting Mr Sang’s replacement.

On Thursday, KPC announced the appointment of five non-executive directors, including Ramathan GGoobi, Uganda’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and Irene Pauline Bateebe, who serves in the same position in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.

 “The Board of Directors of the Kenya Pipeline Company… hereby notifies shareholders, the investing public, and all stakeholders that it has appointed the following individuals as Non-Executives of the Company from July 28, 2026,” reads the public announcement.

 Others appointed to the board include Samson Kipkemboi Burgei, who will be the alternate director to the Kenyan government’s Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning.

 Meshack Otieno Kidenda, the first Director-General of the Kenya National Highways Authority, and Ronald Kenyanya Nyamosi, who will be the alternate director to the Managing Trustee/CEO of the National Social Security Fund, have also joined the KPC board.

In May, five KPC board members are said to have expressed discomfort with proceeding with the hiring of the CEO before Uganda’s representatives were appointed as directors.

In minutes seen by the Business Daily, the board insisted that nothing stopped it from proceeding with the exercise despite the reservations, noting that the Ugandan representatives would join them later.

Uganda spent over Sh30 billion to acquire the 20.15 percent stake in KPC.

In exchange for its significant IPO anchoring, Uganda received key powers, including a veto to hire and fire KPC’s chief executive officer.

Uganda secured further concessions in the operations of the company, including the approval of tariff increases, dividend policy, employee restructuring and rights issues.

“So long as the CST and GoU (Government of Uganda) are eligible to nominate a CST director and a GoU director respectively, the following matters shall require the approval of a CST director and a GoU director… (a) the appointment of the managing director,” reads Section 21 of the memorandum of association.

The section adds that the two directors should also be involved in “the appointment or removal of the chief executive officer, where such office is distinct from that of the managing director.”

Uganda will invest and hold a strategic stake in KPC through Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the state-owned oil company that imports fuel into the landlocked country.

The country says its participation in the IPO was a deliberate strategic decision aimed at strengthening regional energy cooperation and safeguarding national interests.

The push for Kampala’s influence in KPC affairs comes less than two years after Kenya allowed the landlocked country’s state oil firm to import petroleum products through the Port of Mombasa, ending a row between the two neighbours.

About 90 percent of the top owners of KPC bought their shares through proxies during the IPO, keeping the identity of the investors anonymous.

Regulatory filings show that 18 of the top 20 shareholders of KPC are under nominee accounts after demand from Kenyan institutional investors and Uganda government helped the IPO become oversubscribed.