NFRA Chair Kalekeni threatens staff

Beleaguered Board Chairman for scandal-lidden National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) Dennis Kalekeni has started threatening staff members of dismissals for ‘leaking’ information to the media about the Organisation.

Kalekeni who has just been re-appointed to the NFRA board is said to have been acting like an executive chairman where he is meeting staff and threatening them with dismissals.

Governance rules states that the Chairman of the board should not be involved in the day to day running of an Organisation and will only get information from executive management.

Insiders said Kalekeni is not happy with several reports about scandals at NFRA which included an embarrassing loss of maize worth K123 million recently and his abuse of allowances as board chairman.

We have information that every time Kalekeni visits NFRA offices, he is paid allowances amounting to K200, 000 and he has also been taking allowances amounting to K1.3 million for trips that he has not taken.

“Now the Chairman has a bone to chew with staff members and he has threatened to personally make sure that they are fired,” said our source.

Kalekeni is also said to be acting like an executive manager because of his alleged affair with NFRA CEO Brenda Kayongo.

But trouble is brewing for Kalekeni in the K123 million maize scandal next week when he appears before the parliamentary committee investigating corruption and abuse of office issues that have recently rocked government departments and agencies.

Insiders said parliamentary committee members investigating the maize scandal have stumbled on information that the kingpin in the scandal Smollet Kachere who is answering charges of the missing maize is a direct cousin of Kalekeni and he was acting on instructions from him and Kayongo.

“It will be interesting to see how he will handle this issue because everyone knows that Kachere and the Chairman are relatives, they are direct cousins actually and he knows how this maize was stolen,” said a committee member who did not want to be mentioned ‘because of the sensitivity of the matter’