@Guru i knew there was more than meets the eye. Here's the inside scoop you can read the whole of it http://nairobilawmonthly...ntent.asp?contentId=242

"KCB is the only institution that has two deputy CEOs — which were created for political rather than business considerations.

This structure at KCB has given clout to Mr Munyiri with Mr Oduor-Otieno’s role at the bank shaping up to that of a figure head. But McKinsey & Company will find it difficult to execute its mandate amid corporate politics at KCB with some executive directors saying they were transferred to less glamorous positions as a step to lay them off.

This includes Catherine Njoroge, former director of retail, who was given the less glamorous special projects division, and there is a feeling the position will be scrapped.

The job of retail director was given to Timothy Kabiru, formerly head of treasury, and who has emerged as the blue eyed boy of Mr Munyiri and the bank’s chairman Peter Muthoka, and has been tipped as a future head of KCB.

The power play at KCB pits Mr Munyiri and Mr Kimani and has its roots at Treasury, which is the single largest shareholder, and historical central Kenya supremacy battles between Nyeri and Kiambu people. Mr Munyiri was poached from Cooperative Bank in 2007 in a process shepherded by Mr Muthoka with the blessing of then Finance minister (and now Transport minister) Amos Kimunya, who was keen to balance the dominance of Kiambu people in banking.

The plan was for Mr Munyiri to take over from Mr Oduor-Otieno whose tenure was to end in April 2011.

Mr Munyiri embarked on a plan to build a loyal team around him that saw the elevation of Mr Kabiru to head of retail banking and David Thuo to head of Treasury last year.

But before this, Mr Kimunya exited Treasury in 2009 and was replaced Uhuru Kenyatta who is keen on Mr Kimani, who is said to have a good working relationship with Catherine Njoroge, Antony Githuku (director, IT) and Mary-Ann Musangi (director in charge of marketing).

This sparked a vicious angling for the CEO’s job between the two deputies, prompting the board to extend Mr Oduor-Otieno’s tenure in June — 10 months before its expiry — for two years to 2013 in attempt to ease the jostling for the position.

@papa investor, it is not a mess. Just correcting the initial hiring mess. Banking was not the fundamental qualification when most of that lot was hired. I'm not surprised if it is true that CBK rejected some names. You can fool people some of the time, not all the time.

Kazi itaendelea. Wakwenda watakwenda.

Of all directors I am most concerned about Mr. Sunil Shah who controls almost 5% of KCB Group & he is the comittee head of the Transformation Comittee. Muthoka has about 220K shares which is good too & that gaurantees a geniune push to success of the transformation.

I admire Mr. Sunil Shah as he is a business man of self make less all those fancy & at time worthless academic accolades. So I rest assured that his interests & aspirations for the KCB Group are fully aligned with ours. He reminds me of one Bharat Thakrar...thorough bred hands on enterpreneurs.