In Kenya, looking for a job is a daunting task especially in the wake of the high level of unemployment among the youth who have gone through proper university education but still don’t have ‘enough’ experience to be absorbed in the job market.
Among the top bosses arrested in the ongoing Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) scandal is one Company Secretary, Gloria Khafafa who apparently is not qualified for the job.
There are now claims that the current firm’s Secretary Gloria Khafafa was hired as a legal officer without appropriate papers. When Ms Khafafa applied to work for KPC, she is said to have lied that she holds a CPS(K) qualification and was awaiting issuance of a certificate adding that she and she had worked for six years.
The requirements placed by KPC was that for the appointment as a senior legal officer, one was required to have at least a minimum of 7 years experience in a busy law firm.
Records showed that before Ms Khafafa was hired as a senior legal officer, she misled the Board Human Resources committee about her CPS (K) qualifications, which she did not have. When the HR department later undertook background check, they were told by the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries and KASNEB that Ms Khafafa did not have the qualifications.
“It is clear that the candidate gave false information in her letters of application for both the senior legal officer and chief legal officer (positions),” read a Memo to the then KPC MD, Charles Tanui.
The Board Human Resource Committee the directed the management to carry out disciplinary process on Gloria Khafafa in accordance with the staff rules and regulations for giving false information to both management and the Board on her qualifications.
In a letter signed on behalf of Mr Tanui by Ms Ng’inja and dated March 21 2014, Ms Khafafa was asked to “show cause” why disciplinary action should not be taken against her.
The letter to Ms Khafafa said: “It has been established that you have never attempted CPS examination conducted by KASNEB as indicated in your letter for the position.”
However, Ms Khafafa was neither suspended nor reported to the police. Instead, she wrote a reply saying it was not her intention to mislead the Board: “At the time I have that statement, I was sincerely under the impression that I had obtained the requisite credits and that any anomalies in my record would be corrected in time.”
On July 3, 2014, Ms Khafafa was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee to answer charges on why she “knowingly” misled the Board and gave false information to the company while seeking promotion.
However, the meeting was “cancelled on the MD’s advice” and Ms. Khafafa was later promoted to act as Chief Legal Officer “until she passes her CPS (K) examinations.”
She was later confirmed to the position by the Board in September 2015 rising to become the current company secretary.
So do you think the reason Gloria Khafafa has survived this long at KPC even after investigation is because she is powerful or does she just know how to play her cards right?