Employees of the East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPC) have protested the appointment of Bruno Oguda Obodha as the new Managing Director citing conflict of interest and lack of technical ability.
The workers say the new appointee has been transacting business with Portland through a real estate company and that would compromise decision making at the firm.
Agitated workers on Monday morning blocked the main entrance of the company using heavy machineries to block access to Obodha who was scheduled to report to the company.
They shut down the company kiln stopping the productions completely.
“Mr Obadha’s involvement in a real estate firm that directly transacts with EAPC through land regularization presents a glaring conflict of interest. This will comprise decision making and raise ethical concerns about the impartiality and transparency required for the Managing Director role,” an employee said in his statement.
Statement added: “During the November interviews the acting MD Mohammed Aden emerged the best candidate scoring exemplary marks,”
They also question how the president bypassed the highly ranked candidate who is the current acting MD Mohamed Osman Adan after Portland special board of directors forwarded the results to the ministry of investments, trade and industry.
According to the interview results dated 22 November 2022, Obodha was listed to have scored Percent while Mohamed and Justa Mwangi scored 88 and 63 percent respectively.
The workers have vowed to paralyse operations at the cement making firm until the issue is addressed.
Cement production at the company has increased to 50,000 metric tons per month after the plant was refurbished leading to a significant share price increase from Ksh 7 to Ksh 53.
