Kamal out of Kenya Airways as board turns to legal chief Waswani
Company Secretary Habil Waswani takes charge, in temporary capacity, as MD & CEO at Kenya Airways
NAIROBI, Tuesday, September 1, 2026 — Kenya Airways has parted ways with Captain George Kamal, its acting Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, barely eight months after he took the controls of the national carrier. The board, chaired by Kiprono Kittony, announced the exit on Tuesday, attributing it to Kamal’s resignation “for personal reasons”.
He will stay on for a 30-day handover before formally leaving on September 30. Stepping into the cockpit is Habil Waswani, the airline’s Company Secretary and Director of Legal Services and Regulatory Compliance, who becomes acting Group MD and CEO from September 15.
The board said a competitive search for a substantive chief executive is already under way and should conclude in the near term. A short stint at the top: Kamal was elevated to the acting role on December 16, 2025, after long-serving CEO Allan Kilavuka went on terminal leave ahead of the end of his contract in April 2026.
A pilot by training with close to three decades in aviation across Africa and the Middle East, Kamal had joined KQ in March 2023 as Chief Operating Officer from Iraqi Airways, where he served as chief executive. Before that he headed operations at Air Arabia. In a statement, Kittony credited Kamal with steering the airline through a turbulent period, but the board did not elaborate on the circumstances of his departure or say whether he would return to his previous role as COO. Exit follows heavy losses: The change at the top comes a week after KQ Kamal out of Kenya Airways as board turns to legal chiefreported one of the worst half-year results in its history.
The airline posted a net loss of Sh16.1 billion for the six months to June 2026, up from Sh12.2 billion in the same period last year, despite revenue rising nine per cent to Sh81.25 billion, the second-highest half-year turnover on record. Cargo income grew 18 per cent to Sh8.77 billion, but the gains were wiped out by costs, which climbed to Sh91.9 billion. Fuel was the biggest culprit: the airline’s fuel bill jumped by more than 70 per cent on the back of the Middle East crisis, consuming roughly a third of operating expenses.
Global shortages of engines and spare parts kept several aircraft grounded, cutting capacity by nine per cent. The airline had recorded a Sh5.4 billion profit in 2024, its first in over a decade, before sliding to a Sh17.2 billion loss in 2025. Chief Finance Officer Mary Mwenga has warned that cost pressures show little sign of easing. The lawyer taking over: Waswani is an unusual choice to run an airline. He joined KQ in March 2021 from National Bank of Kenya, where he was company secretary, and has spent 24 years in corporate and commercial law, including stints at Kenya Reinsurance Corporation and Diamond Trust Bank. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi, a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and is a Certified Public Secretary. He also has a Global Executive MBA from the United States International University in collaboration with Columbia Business School. The board said it fully backs his appointment for the interim period and expects him to keep the airline’s turnaround strategy on course, with a focus on restoring profitability and improving operational reliability. For KQ, the reshuffle means its third acting or substantive chief executive in under a year, at a time when investors, the Treasury as majority shareholder, and travellers are all waiting for a credible plan to stem the bleeding at the “Pride of Africa”.
