By Investigative Desk
He cannot design a transmission line. He cannot read a load flow study. And when a contractor once asked him to explain the difference between 220kV and 400kV, he reportedly asked for a weekend to “consult Google.”
But Antony Wamukota knows one thing very well: how to use a consumer lobby to fight his battles.
This publication has learned that Wamukota, the man secretly directing the Consumer Federation of Kenya’s court case to halt Ketraco’s CEO recruitment, is doing so for one naked reason – he is the least qualified candidate in the race, and he knows deep in his bones that he would be laughed out of any honest interview.
While his three rivals hold master’s degrees in electrical engineering, project management, and business administration from accredited universities, Wamukota’s highest academic achievement remains a bachelor’s degree from a college whose name makes HR officers wince. But that is not the worst of it.
Fiction becomes reality: Inside Wamukota’s trail of technical terror
Current and former Ketraco staff have shared with this publication a catalogue of embarrassing incompetence that they say defines Wamukota’s tenure. While some details are too unbelievable to print, those we have verified paint a picture of a man who has no business near a control room.
Take the infamous “Transformer Fiasco of 2022.” According to three sources, Wamukota personally signed off on the purchase of two 132kV power transformers for the Kitale–Ortum project. The problem? The transformers were the wrong voltage rating for that line. When the error was discovered, Wamukota allegedly insisted they could be “converted with an adapter.” A senior engineer had to explain to him, in a room full of colleagues, that electricity does not work like a phone charger.
“Then he ordered the engineer to ‘find a way.’ The transformers ended up in a warehouse for two years. Parts were stolen. We paid Sh85 million in storage fees for equipment we could never use. And Wamukota never apologised. He simply blamed the supplier.”
Then there was the “Substation Shutdown Scandal.” During a routine testing of the Suswa substation – a critical node in the Ethiopia-Kenya line – a fault occurred. Wamukota, then acting CEO, reportedly panicked and ordered an emergency shutdown of the entire facility, cutting power to three counties for six hours. Later investigations revealed the fault was minor and could have been isolated in fifteen minutes. Wamukota’s response? “I was being cautious.”
“He does not understand the grid,” said a senior transmission engineer who has since resigned. “He thinks it is like switching off a light bulb. He has no postgraduate training, no deep technical knowledge, and worse – he refuses to listen to those who do. That is not incompetence. That is dangerous incompetence.”
Why Cofek? Because merit is his enemy
Wamukota’s strategy is as transparent as it is pathetic. Knowing that he would rank dead last in any fair competition, he has deployed Cofek to argue that a master’s degree requirement is “illegal.” But insiders say the real target is not the law – it is the humiliation of being exposed.
“He cannot sit in a room with people who have real academic credentials,” said a former Ketraco board member. “He becomes defensive, aggressive, and then silent. I once saw him walk out of a meeting because someone used the word ‘topology’ and he did not understand it. He thought they were talking about maps of mountains. He is using Cofek to avoid that embarrassment again.”
A source within the State Corporations Advisory Committee added: “Wamukota knows that if the interviews proceed, he will be asked technical questions about load balancing, reactive power, and grid stability. He cannot answer any of them. His only hope is to eliminate the requirement that exposes him. That is why he is paying Cofek. That is why he is crying to the courts.”
Fiction: The ‘PowerPoint General’
Staff have given Wamukota a nickname: Mr. PowerPoint. They say he cannot build anything, but he can assemble a beautiful slide deck – usually copied from the internet – to make it look like he is in charge. One former project manager recalled a tense moment during the Loiyangalani project when a contractor asked for the exact tower spotting coordinates.
“Wamukota pulled up a slide that said ‘Coordinates: To be advised.’ The contractor asked, ‘By whom?’ Wamukota said, ‘By the technical team.’ The problem? He was the technical team. He had fired the lead engineer a week earlier for correcting him in public.”
That engineer, by the way, had a master’s degree from the University of Nairobi. Wamukota replaced him with a cousin who holds a diploma in business information technology.
The tears are coming
For all his bluster, sources say Wamukota is a deeply insecure man. He knows the jig is up. He knows the EACC is circling. And he knows that his lack of a master’s degree – and the deeper lack of competence that it represents – is about to be broadcast to the nation.
“I have seen him cry three times,” said a former secretary. “Once when the EACC suspension letter came. Once when his own driver called him ‘Boss of Nothing’ after a particularly bad day. And once when he realised that even Cofek’s lawyers were laughing at him behind his back. Those tears were not of anger. They were of shame. He knows he is not qualified. He has always known.”
As one anonymous text sent to our newsroom read: “Wamukota is using Cofek because his CV is a prayer and his competence is a myth. When the court laughs at him, he will cry. When the board rejects him, he will cry. When his mirror reminds him of the degree he never earned, he will cry. And Kenya will not wipe his tears.”
