By Mercy Imali
Abbas Gullet the Kenya Red Cross Secretary General is set to retire this year. The long serving General’s contracts comes to a close. A statement by Kenya Red Cross revealed, Gullet will be succeeded by Dr. Asha Mohammed who has been serving as his deputy. He has been with the humanitarian organization for 18 years.
Mohammed has been in charge of Programs and the Global Fund. She previously served as the Head of the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Regional Delegation for Southern Africa Region in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gullet is credited for being at the front-line in providing efficient disaster response in the country, notably the 2007/2008 post-election violence, the 2013 Westgate Mall terror attack the drought situation that ravaged the northern part of the country among other disaster.During his tenure he had branded himself as a leader who had brought efficiency and speed to disaster response and programme implementation in the country.
The board also acknowledged that Gullet had overseen a smooth financial transition since he ascended to office by raising revenue, which was highly used in providing aid in the country.
The agency Governor Dr. Mohamud Said noted, “In 2001 the organization had a debt of KSH35 million but when he took over the debt now stands at Sh10 million,”
Said pointed out that Abbas has always believed in leading from the front just when we were managing a disaster but even in where the organization needed to go and we are grateful for his service. He leaves the organization stronger than he found it and hands it over to an extremely competent successor.