KQ CEO Salary: Kenya Airways chief executive officer Sebastian Mikosz has come out to clarify that he does not earn Sh. 8 million per month.
The head of KQ said that he earns Sh. 2.7 million. This follows reports that appeared on social media suggesting that the Polish CEO takes home one of the top salaries.
In a statement, Mr Mikosz said his monthly salary is also subject to 29 per cent income tax that he pays to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). He also denied that the national carrier is headed by a coterie of 21 expatriates who take home a combined Sh. 70 million per month.
“The authors of this letter did not check the basic facts so as to mislead the public. I would like to assure you that I am not taking the efforts at misinformation and defamation lightly and I’ve already taken legal action against individuals and groups spreading the defamatory statements. Let the courts objectively assess the facts and pass judgment,” he said.
He further said that KQ employs 18 expatriates, including all secondments, out of the total number of more than 3,000 employees. This is approximately 0.6 per cent of the entire KQ staff. He added that of the 18 foreign employees, five are KLM managers seconded to Kenya Airways.
Two of them are occupying senior positions of chief operating officer and head of global sales.
“Although they work for KQ, they remain KLM employees. Their salaries and any other benefits are covered by KLM. This means that no one in KQ has access to that information. The amounts in the public domain are, therefore, purely fictitious and aimed at creating negative emotions in the working environment,” he said.
He said of the top 50 managers, seven are foreigners, representing just 14 per cent of the leadership team.
“This means our company is run by a strong contingent of Kenyans who represent 86 per cent of the highest positions in the company. The remaining seconded employees ensure knowledge transfer and address competency gaps in the areas of financial modelling, building business cases and coordinating the strategic projects.
“They leverage experience gathered in the restructuring of companies in Europe. This also relates to the team of seven consultants, commonly referred to as the ‘polish team’. Moreover, fees for their services are also much lower than of the consulting companies that supported KQ in the past,” he said.