Telkom Kenya has appointed Mugo Kibati as its new CEO after Aldo Mareuse has quit to pursue other interests.

Kibati is well known for his role as the Delivery Secretariat (VDS) Director General of the semi-autonomous agency Vision 2030. He managed policy implementation over several sectors to push Kenya to a middle-income country.

He also served as the Group Managing Director and CEO at East African Cables PLC and just prior to his appointment was the immediate former Group CEO of Sanlam Kenya PLC.

According to information supplied Kibati is an Electrical Engineer and holds an Electrical Engineering Degree from Moi University (Kenya), a Master of Science Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) and a Master of Business Administration Degree from George Washington University (USA).

Kibati takes over at a difficult time for the company - it is fighting to have Safaricom's dominance in the market recognised in a bid to level out the playing field.

The incoming CEO said he hoped to "push the company to the next level."

Mareuse was with the company from mid-2016 and according to the board chair of Telkom Kenya Eddie Njoroge, he expanded the company's network by 50%.

"The Board is very grateful to Aldo for his leadership of the company over the last three years. Notable milestone are successful rebranding of the company to Telkom and rolling out of a 4G network, resulting in the company becoming the data operator of choice in the market. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours," said Njoroge.