Kenya Ports Authority management board may be disbanded if the yet to be released recommendations by the National Cohesion and Integration will be implemented.

NCIC commissioner Yassin Ahmed said the report had been compiled in accordance with the law and provisions of the NCIC act and that it was only a matter of editorial polishing before the report is released on Monday. "What I can tell you is that the report has been compiled and the findings are within the law. We engaged all the parties ranging from the minister, the permanent secretary and chairman of the board and the report will be out on Monday. You can guess by yourself if indeed the appointments were in accordance with section 7 of the NCIC Act," said Yassin.

National Cohesion and Integration Act specifies that "no public entity shall have more than a third of its staff from one tribe." However, Transport minister Amos Kimunya appointed the KPA management board in disregard to the stated provisions. In a Kenya gazette dated April 20, Kimunya appointed Bernard Githuma, Eunice Njeru and Abdalla Mohamed to the KPA board of directors in place of Mohamed Jahazi, George Weiria and Komora Jillo, whose terms had expired.

Two of the directors removed were from Coast and only one from the region has been appointed to the new board. The appointments were later followed by a series of complains among court injunctions outcries from members from local communities and leaders who claimed that their representation was not catered for by the minister. The lobby groups among them Mijikenda youth forum under the stewardship of Nyonga Wa Makemba then filed a complaint to the commission upon which the commission acted upon. They complained that Kimunya's appointments did not consider the wishes and people from the region within which the port of Mombasa operates.

Nairobi judge Mohammed Warsame suspended the 14-member board temporarily pending the hearing and determination of a suit challenging its appointment. Warsame on May 8th this year ordered that the board should not hold any official meetings until the case filed by Malindi MP Gideon Mung'aro opposing the board's appointment was concluded. The court also suspended the effect of a legal notice in which Mr Kimunya announced the names of the board members on April 20, raising questions that have dominated public debate ever since.