By Mulengera Reporters
In absence a substantive Chief Operating Officer (COO), the position of Head Flight Operations becomes exceptionally critical at Uganda Airlines.
The all-important position recently became vacant following the controversial ouster of Capt. David Kaweesa, a seasoned veteran pilot from Bunyangabu in Toro region of Uganda. Colleagues in management had always found Capt. Kaweesa complicated and hard to work with because he always insisted on high standards and was never prepared to compromise on especially regulatory compliance.
In the end, a false impression was created to the Board that the roughly 70 pilots he was supervising were threatening to down tools and go on strike if he continued having supervisory authority over them. The Board acquiesced to this proposal and okayed his ouster.
Being a seasoned flight captain with a lot of name to protect, Capt. Kaweesi, decent as always, honorably accepted the knifing and eased out. Actually, he has since returned to Canada which is his second home. And aviation industry watchers are already describing his very humiliating removal as a big loss to Uganda Airline.
“Having worked with some of the best airlines in the world in high positions, Capt. Kaweesa had saved the Uganda Airlines from many would-be very damaging situations and the vacuum his removal leaves behind will be hard to fill,” says one aviation industry pundit.
Having started out years ago at Soroti Flying School as an instructor decades ago, Capt. Kaweesa later worked with the East African Airways and Saudi Air which he served for more than 20 years.
The process to advertise and get a new person for that role had started very well but in the last three weeks, no much progress has been made even when an expensively-procured Muzungu recruitment expert had been brought on board to advise on the entire process.
Otherwise, 6 people had applied including a Ghanaian Flight Captain, currently working with Rwanda Air. The others include Capt. Enabu, Capt. Lukeman and Capt. Ebrahim Kisoro.
Some of the stakeholders are worried that the recruitment process may end up being cancelled so that in the end, the position is recruited through head-hunting, which is what some of the influencers in top management want. There are growing fears that this will be used as leverage to bring in a foreign expatriate. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
