Kenya Airways’ Acting Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Captain George Kamal, has resigned from the national carrier, citing personal reasons, the airline announced on Tuesday, September 1.
According to the airline, Kamal will remain at Kenya Airways for a 30-day transition period before his formal exit on September 30, 2026. Chairman Kiprono Kittony confirmed the departure in a memo to staff dated September 1, thanking Kamal for four years of service to the airline.
Kamal joined Kenya Airways as Chief Operating Officer in March 2023, a role he held for roughly three years before being elevated to acting CEO on December 16, 2025, taking over from Allan Kilavuka, who exited after six years at the helm of the airline.
The board credited Kamal with helping stabilise operations during his time as COO and later guiding the company through that leadership transition and the implementation of its ongoing turnaround strategy, while thanking him for his service, leadership and dedication and wishing him well in his future endeavours.
In his place, the board has appointed Habil Waswani, currently Kenya Airways’ Company Secretary and Director of Legal Services and Regulatory Compliance, as Acting Group Managing Director and CEO, effective September 15, 2026.
Waswani brings more than 24 years of experience as a corporate and commercial legal practitioner, including senior roles at listed banking and insurance institutions, and has spent over five years at Kenya Airways overseeing aviation-related legal matters alongside commercial and corporate law.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi, a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law, and a Global Executive MBA from the United States International University, delivered in collaboration with Columbia Business School in New York.
He is a Certified Public Secretary and a member of the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Certified Secretaries of Kenya, and the Institute of Directors of Kenya, and has been named to the Legal 500 GC Powerlist East Africa on multiple occasions since 2004.
Kenya Airways said a competitive recruitment process to identify a substantive Group Managing Director and CEO is already under way and is expected to conclude in the near term.
Kamal’s resignation lands at a turbulent moment for the airline. It comes just days after Kenya Airways reported a net loss of Sh16.08 billion for the six months to June 2026, a result Kamal himself had presented to investors only shortly before stepping down, and hours after aviation workers staged a strike that disrupted operations at airports nationwide.
The half-year results showed total income of Sh81.25 billion, up 9.1 per cent from the same period last year, even as operating costs rose to Sh91.9 billion from Sh80.7 billion, driven largely by higher fuel and maintenance expenses and continuing difficulties in restoring aircraft capacity after fleet availability problems affected the airline’s operations. The board’s staff memo announcing Kamal’s departure did not state a reason for his exit or indicate his next move.
