KENYA (eTN) – Killian Lugwe, best known in Kampala for heading the team which transformed the former Nile Hotel International into the Kampala Serena Hotel before being posted back to Nairobi at the end of 2010, where after a spell as General Manager of the Nairobi Serena Hotel he now oversees Serena’s city hotels in the region, has been appointed by President Kibaki to chair the Hotel and Restaurant Authority. This move was widely hailed as a step into the right direction to professionalize the chairmanships of such bodies.
Alongside Killian was Caroline Mutoko, a leading broadcasting and media personality in Kenya, appointed as the new Chair of the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, while Anthony Wahome will be chairing the Catering and Tourism Development Levy Trustees Board. The globally-acclaimed Kenya Utalii College, Kenya’s prized institution of higher learning for the hospitality and tourism industry, will be chaired by Gerson Misumi, also a hospitality professional of long standin,g certain to be adding value to the institution.
The new tourism act of 2011 passed by the Kenyan parliament and made law when President Kibaki affixed his signature to the new bill, has prescribed a number of re-constituted and new parastatal bodies to oversee various functions devolved from the Ministry of Tourism to cater to the needs of Kenya’s tourism industry, spur growth through new investments, and protect and expand this vital sector for Kenya’s economy.
Alongside the presidential appointments of chairs, the current Minister for Tourism, Danson Mwazo, then appoints board members for the respective parastatals, details of which are still awaited by the time of going to press.
Congratulations to Killian Lugwe, Caroline Mutoko, and Gerson Misumi, those three personally known to this correspondent, and to Anthony Wahome, too, of course, for success in coming years in their challenging new appointments.
