Captain Ruto begins his tenure as KPA boss

There was a palpable mood at the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) headquarters in Mombasa on Monday, March 13 after Captain William Ruto arrived to begin his 3-year term as the parastatal’s Managing Director.

Ruto, who arrived at the KPA offices on Monday morning, held a meeting with the outgoing acting MD John Mwangemi and the authority’s board chairperson Benjamin Dalu Tayari.

Ruto was appointed last week by Transport and Road Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen.

The new KPA boss is tasked with transforming port operations and ensuring seamless flow of cargo from Mombasa to hinterlands. 

 Captain Ruto is also tasked with ensuring a good working relationship between dock workers union, clearing and forwarding agents, importers, and other port traders to ensure increased revenue generation.

The Mombasa port community stakeholders have welcomed the appointment of Captain William Ruto, who is poised to transform operations at KPA. Ruto is also expected to streamline operations in Lamu port and Kisumu ports.

KPA had remained without a substantive boss for the past three years since the resignation of Dr Daniel Manduku on March 26, 2020 over graft allegations. Until this appointment, he was the General Manager of the Kisumu Port.

 Ruto, who has worked at KPA for 32 years after joining in 1991 as a Cadet Marine Deck Officer before rising through the ranks to be a General Manager, Operations, and later a Harbour Master, was on Friday named the new substantive boss of the parastatal.

Captain Ruto welcomed

On Friday, March 10, the Mombasa port community led by the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) national chairperson Roy Mwanthi, said they are optimistic that Captain Ruto will change operations at KPA. 

“As a fraternity and practitioners in the clearing, forwarding, and logistics sector, we are delighted to have Captain Ruto at the helm of KPA. He has been the general manager of operations, he has been tried and tested, and found to be fit,” said Mwanthi.

He said they are looking forward to having streamlined operations at the Port of Mombasa, Inland Container Depot Nairobi, and ICD Naivasha. 

“We look forward as a fraternity to working together with Captain Ruto and other stakeholders to have smooth cargo clearing services offered to Kenyans and East Africans,” he said.

According to Mwanthi, Ruto’s appointment is a win-win situation for the entire industry.  “We look forward to seeing increased productivity at the port, improved efficiency, growth at the port and even re-awakening of the ports like Lamu,” he said.

 He was speaking in Mombasa during a press conference while flanked by other stakeholders. Captain Ruto now becomes the fifteenth MD since KPA was established in 1978.

The appointment follows a rigorous and intensive recruitment process by the KPA Board of Directors which received 75 applications.  

“Pursuant to and in accordance with the powers conferred to me under Section 5(1) of the Kenya Ports Authority, Cap 391, and further in consultation with the Board of Directors, I have this morning appointed Captain William Kipkemboi Ruto as the Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority for a period of three years,” said the CS.

Captain Ruto who until this appointment was the General Manager Port of Kisumu, is a seasoned mariner having started his career in 1991 at KPA as a Cadet Marine Deck Officer before rising through the ranks to be a General Manager, Operations and later a Harbour Master.