HOW TRUE IS THIS? "Kenyan who gave Precision Air wings to soar higher"

By  Philip Mwakio
Kenya: After 10 years at the helm of Precision Air, Tanzania premier airline, as the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alfonse Kioko, retired from the carrier on March 5, 2013.
Mr Kioko, a Kenyan, shared his experiences in this competitive business. “My tenure at Precision Air (PW) can be described as nothing less than a roller coaster in many ways,” he told The Standard on Sunday. He joined the airline on March 5, 2003, a year when national carrier, Kenya Airways (KQ) bought 49 per cent in Precision Air. The airline was a little known family-run business at the time.
“Though I had done 13 years in the aviation sector prior to this appointment, I have to confess that I didn’t know of Precision Air!’’ he said. Founded by Mr Michael Shirima, who previously worked for the East African Airways and Air Tanzania, the airline’s head office was in Arusha and at the time it was struggling to remain afloat. Kioko says staff strength was less than 100, with most of them coming from around Arusha and the northern region.
“Because of this the airline was labeled a northern region outfit and run by people from the north. This was one of my major challenges. I had to work hard to convince people to see it as a Tanzanian carrier rather than a tribal owned firm,” he said.
Highly competitive
He concedes that aviation business is highly specialised and skilled manpower was a big challenge as well. That meant that one had to fold their sleeves and go to work irrespective of seniority.
The fleet composition at the time, Kioko said was a seven-seater one engine Cessna 207, one seven-seater Cessna 402, two eleven-seater Cessna 404s and the nineteen-seater LET 410 and later ATR42-300. “Often scheduled flights would be disrupted to pave way for quick buck from charter flights,’’ the aviation expert said.
Unknown to many and devoid of any encumbered tangible assets to use as security, the company had a very weak financial base.  The money that KQ paid to purchase the 49 per cent stake went into the pockets of the initial investors. No single cent was put into operations.
“Indeed the due diligence report done by KQ in 2002 prior to investing into PW clearly stipulated that although the company had great potential, it could become viable only after a capital injection of $12 million,’’ he noted.

From Standard Digital News Paper; http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000088952&story title=Kenyan-who-gave-Precision-Air-wings-to-soar-higher