Nairobi, Aug. 6 -- Before joining KPC as Chief Accountant in 2010, Pius Mwendwa spent more than a decade at Nation Media Group, rising through the finance ranks.

He left with a five-year plan. "I wanted to debunk the narrative that it's hard to grow in a State corporation," he says. "I was to be here for five years, then move on."

Fifteen years later, he occupies the sixth-floor corner office at KPC headquarters in Nairobi's Industrial Area, serving as acting Managing Director-a role he says fulfils a long-held ambition, whether permanent or not.

"When the history books are written, I will have made my contribution and left my legacy. Nobody can take that away from me, even if it was just five months."

Mwendwa attributes his rise to a...