CENTUM'S MWORIA TOPS LIST OF KENYA'S BEST PAID EXECUTIVES

Centum Investment chief executive James Mworia.

Centum Investment chief executive James Mworia is corporate Kenya’s best paid manager with an annual compensation of Sh201.1 million or Sh16.7 million per month, according to the latest financial reports. 

The pay, which incorporates a performance bonus, places Mr Mworia ahead of his peers, who lead Kenya’s five largest companies by market capitalisation at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, including telecoms operator Safaricom andEast African Breweries Limited(EABL).

Mr Mworia’s compensation is disclosed in Centum’s latest annual report, which covers the year ended March.
The 39-year-old corporate executive has mainly benefited from his company’s generous bonus scheme that rewards employees for growth in shareholder funds. 

The performance bonus, which has coincided with Centum’s aggressive expansion into big-ticket projects, has inflated the investment firm’s executive pay by large margins – placing them ahead of their peers.
Similar disclosures show that three executive directors of Equity Group, including the bank’s CEO, James Mwangi, earned average monthly pay of Sh15.9 million each in the year ended December 2015. 

Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore and former chief financial officer John Tombleson took home an average monthly pay of Sh10.7 million in the year ended March, ranking third in the list of top earners.
Mr Collymore in December last year disclosed that he earned about Sh8.9 million per month in employment income in the preceding 12 months.
EABL’s Jane Karuku (MD of Kenya Breweries Limited) and the firm’s two former executives – Charles Ireland (former CEO) and Tracey Barnes (former CFO) — shared an average monthly pay of Sh7.2 million in the year ended June 2015 while KCB Group’s Joshua Oigara and his chief financial officer, Lawrence Kimathi, took home an average monthly compensation of Sh6.3 million each in the year ended December 2015.

The two executive directors at BAT Kenya – chief executive Keith Gretton and CFO Philip Lopokoiyit — are next in the pecking order with average monthly compensation of Sh5.3 million each in the year ended December.
Mr Mworia’s pay rose by a quarter from the previous Sh160.5 million or Sh13.3 million per month, trailing only that of the Equity executives whose compensation increased 30 per cent.

Remuneration of EABL and BAT executives rose five per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively while those of Safaricom and KCB executives declined four and two per cent respectively, partly due to executive changes.
Mr Mworia’s pay increase matched the 25 per cent jump in Centum’s net profit to Sh9.9 billion in the year ended March.

Business Daily