JLR has a right to choose who they want to go with but many have also castigated firms that do business with corrupt regimes e.g. sales by BAE to Tanzania, etc. The crooks [kiereini, muthoka, forster] should have admitted & quietly left the Board. That would have preserved CMC's business/image as well as allowed them an exit [sale of the shares] without the hullabaloo.
Look at the (taxpayer & shareholder) losses at NBK & KCB that have slowly been overcome over the past 10 years [with massive cash injections] due to massive corruption by the executives starting from michuki's & githunguri's days.

Lay came in afterwards. The downdraft had started under Forster when the muthoka (Andy Forwarders) deal had started sucking the other CMC shareholders dry. The rot had started internally but it came to the fore [we thought the apple was 'ripe' but it was rotten] as the core was rotten.

This is the similar as seen in KCB, NBK or other firms where internal sweetheart deals/loans destroy other shareholders' value. The rot had started years ago but hidden from view. Huge earnings announced but with huge bad loans to politicians & friends of the 'government officials'.

See the story of Uchumi with the deals kirubi (Haco) did aka self-dealing. Similar. The worm ate all the goodies leaving the other shareholders with a shell.

KCB, NBK and Uchumi survived through a combination of cash infusions (Rights Issues & bailouts) & sweetheart deals (GoK accounts at KCB or NBK) that revived them. The appointment of (externally sourced) directors not related to the corrupt cabal also helped e.g George, Davidson, Oduor-Otieno, Marambii, Ciano that broke the stranglehold of the insiders.

Lay is a manager who was recruited by Kibe/Ndungu despite efforts by muthoka/kiereini/forster to keep control away from Kibe/Ndungu group. The fight is at the board or shareholder (ownership) level not at the management level.

Ask why haven't kiereini/muthoka backed off & let all shareholders know about the extra payments/compensation made to them WITHOUT BEING REPORTED TO THE OTHER SHAREHOLDERS IN THE ACCOUNTS/ANNUAL REPORTS?

My point seems lost somewhere in this discussion. I am not saying that it is ok for officials to continue looting a publicly quoted company, nor am I blaming Mr. Lay for the woes of CMC. All I am saying is that in instances like this, going nuclear will at times have unintended consequences, like killing the very thing you are trying to save.

The 'old' board, the muthoka/forster/kiereini group went to great lengths to hide the theft. Muthoka attempted to become the chairman & shut down the debate. He tried to buy additional shares to out-vote the Kibe/Ndungu group. If they are clean then let the "Jersey" group explain the additional compensation (courtesy of over-billing) which was not reported in the Annual Reports. What about the alleged over-billing by Muthoka's Andy Forwarders? I understand that one of the directors (Ashok Shah of APA) refused to pay out for moi's stolen Range Rover because the Board/Management refused to report the theft to the police. It seems the theft was an inside job that implicated a member of the Management related to the senior management or Board.

All that Bill Lay did was take the "Jersey" file to Kibe/Ndungu. I wish all shareholders had a copy of the file to make their own decision on whether this was kosher.