President William Ruto announced that several state firms, including Kenya Re and KenGen, will soon have private investors at the board level.
He said the gesture will tame the long-standing governance gaps that have marred state entities, whose appointees have enjoyed state patronage.
“This week, as part of our reform process and our commitment to corporate governance, we will be doing what we did with Kenya Pipeline, and we will be doing it with KenGen and Kenya Re,” Ruto said.
The president said it’s part of his ongoing reforms in the country’s capital markets and spoke at the launch of Safaricom’s Ziidi Tader App.
Also Read: Kenya Re Dividends Up 50% on Strong Financial Performance
Ziidi, henceforth, will enable retail and local investors to trade in the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed companies.
Opening state corporations to private investors, according to the President, will allow the nomination of board members in proportion to their shareholding.
“Wherever we have private sector ownership, they should be represented on the boards to the extent of their ownership.”
Ruto said the reforms are intended to end politically driven board appointments, which he argued have weakened performance, accountability, and investor confidence in some state-linked firms.
This even as he echoed his newly established public funds (National Infrastructure Fund and the Sovereign Wealth Fund), which would be insulated from political influence, with politicians and recent public servants barred from managing or sitting on their boards.
According to the head of state, a mandatory five-year cooling-off period would apply to former public sector officials before they can be considered for appointment, as part of efforts to professionalise the governance of strategic institutions.
