Kenya Airways has announced the departure of its Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Allan Kilavuka, who has proceeded on terminal leave. The Kenya Airways Board of Directors has moved to ensure continuity by appointing the current Chief Operating Officer (COO), Captain George Kamal, to serve as the Acting Group Managing Director and CEO effective 16th December 2025. Captain Kamal, a seasoned aviation executive and career pilot, assumed the role of COO in March 2023.
During his tenure, he has been responsible for critical functions including flight operations, safety, and network execution, overseeing a period of operational stabilization. His interim appointment is widely interpreted as a strategic choice by the Board to maintain stability during this sensitive period of change.
Mr. Kilavuka’s exit concludes a nearly six-year leadership tenure defined by prolonged crisis management and restructuring. He initially assumed the role in an acting capacity in January 2020, with his substantive appointment confirmed in April of that year, a timing that coincided almost precisely with the catastrophic global collapse of air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
His contract, which had been extended in 2024, was originally set to run through April 2026. The national carrier returned to profitability in the 2024 fiscal year after more than a decade in losses. However, for the fiscal year ending 31st December 2025,the airline has issued a profit warning, projecting net earnings to be 25% lower than those recorded in the fiscal year ended 31st December 2024.
Kenya Airways Appoints Interim Leadership
Throughout his challenging term, Mr. Kilavuka spearheaded an aggressive state-backed turnaround strategy encompassing drastic cost-cutting measures, fleet rationalization, route restructuring, and debt reprofiling. These efforts culminated in the airline returning to a pretax profit in 2024, its first in over a decade, sustained by increased passenger numbers, improved yields, and foreign-exchange gains. Despite this milestone, operational and financial performance has remained inconsistent, as evidenced by the recent profit warning citing significant pressure on earnings.
The Board has indicated that the process to recruit a substantive chief executive will commence immediately through a competitive search, underscoring the importance of securing permanent leadership. This transition reiterates a recurring pattern of leadership turnover at Kenya Airways over the past decade. Kilavuka’s predecessors include Sebastian Mikosz, who served from mid-2017 to the end of 2019, and Mbuvi Ngunze, whose tenure lasted approximately two years until 2016.
The last extended period of stable leadership was under Titus Naikuni, who guided the airline for more than a decade until 2014. Consequently, the current administrative shift occurs against a backdrop of historical instability at the helm, presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for Kenya Airways as it seeks to consolidate its fragile recovery and navigate a path toward sustainable profitability.
