WHY ISN’T THE ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT INTERVENING IN THE CASE OF CORNWELL MULEYA?
By Lutangu Wasilota
Cornwell Muleya is a Zambian national who is the immediate past CEO of Uganda Airlines. A seasoned professional, he is a chemical engineer from the University of Bath (England) and an Accountant (fellow Association Chartered Certified Accountants – ACCA). He is an aviation consultant and he is the Founder & Director of Cornwell Aviation Consultants Limited, an aviation consultancy based in Lusaka, Zambia.
Starting out his career as an audit manager in the late 80’s, Mr. Muleya ventured into the aviation industry in 1995 when he took up a job at Air Botswana, rising to the position of CEO. After that he went to Air Mauritius as the Chief Financial Officer before coming back to Zambia to head Zambezi Airlines as CEO. After Zambezi Airlines he went to Kenya to head Al’s (Aircraft Leasing Services), and then finally Uganda at Uganda Airlines where he is the immediate past CEO of the airline.
Obviously by now almost everyone knows that he was arrested on the 21st of June, 2022 accused of corruption, but that was after he sued the Uganda government for almost $1 million dollars for unfair dismissal.
Mr. Muleya’s problems started when a January 27, 2021 dossier he made to President Museveni indicated that intrigue, corruption and interference were the order of the day at Uganda Airlines.
“According to the report, some board members have on several occasions met with some members of the management team to inflate invoices in a bid to make money out of the airline and that this has led to division among the management team as well as inefficiency in the management of the airline.
The report indicated that managers working with backing from some of the board members to inflate invoices have on several occasions to slow down some of the airline projects as they push their own selfish agendas with protection from the “godfathers” on the board.
The report indicated that some board members view the CEO as being too rigid and not flexible on the issue of corruption as people find it hard to work with him”.
The people at Uganda Airlines started pushing for a Ugandan to be a CEO and flush out any foreigner working there in top management. This according to me is ‘NEPOTISM’, they want their ‘OWN’ to head the Airline.
Mr. Cornwell Muleya is an asset that we can use in Zambia to transform Zambia Airways. The government can intervene and bring him back home and give him a position as a Director in Zambia Airways in preparation for him to takeover from the current CEO when the deal is revisited in 2025. Look at how he transformed Uganda Airlines in a very short period of time. Let him come to Zambia Airways so that he can help out the new start up since he has experience in doing that.
My two cents✌