Legal team size: Four

Major legal advisers/external counsel: MMC Asafo Advocates; Oraro & Company Advocates, Iseme Kamau & Maema Advocates/DLA Piper;

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

As in-house legal counsel, supporting a sharia compliant institution in solely sharia-compliant portfolios are significant transactions handled. The exercises include thorough legal due diligence and perfection end-to-end whilst also recognising and appreciating the different modes of business, operation processes and documentation applied in Kenya, sharia compliance notwithstanding.

The assignments are very significant due to the requirement for skill as legal counsel in balancing not only legal-related aspects but also sharia compliance and commercial judgement.

At an individual level, being separately involved in the set-up and successful licensing of a banking institution in Kenya in recent years was also a very significant transaction. The exercise involved putting in place all the legal and governance structures and frameworks required of a financial institution and being responsible for ensuring that the proposed new Bank met all the legal & governance-related requirements for a sound financial institution.

Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years?

Recent regulatory requirements and guidance note(s) pertaining to climate-related risk and governance have greatly impacted my role as head of legal and company secretary. In Kenya, banks are now required to embed the considerations of financial risks from climate change in their governance structures.

This means that business disruption emanating from legal and regulatory compliance has therefore necessitated a change in mind shift and approach in my role and legal-related work. The need to mitigate potential risks and take advantage of opportunities in this area has necessitated laying down structures in our legal operations including appropriate documentation and decision making in my role.

As head of legal and company secretary, I am now attuned to wearing, different hats so-to-speak, being both commercial and legal hats thereby influencing decisions that consider other non-traditional risks and opportunities from the society and environment as business stakeholders.

Are there any causes, business or otherwise, that you are passionate about?

I am very passionate about sustainable finance governance. This is one of the critical emerging areas for businesses that has necessitated recognition of the need by stakeholders, including management, board of directors and shareholders, to strike a balance between the drive for profit and creating impact, in the society and environment through business-related decisions.

As In-house counsel and company secretary I am influencing the same in day-to-day operations and during decision making particularly in re-defining strategy to consider new emerging risks whilst taking advantage of sustainability-related financial and non-financial opportunities.

Up-skilling through successful sustainable finance accreditations at an individual level and appropriate trainings at senior management and board levels has further enhanced my know-how that I apply in my role in senior management and at a personal level. I am now attuned to applying the same as I give advice and required guidance from time to time in legal and business decisions, including in the completed successful implementation of my organisation’s climate risk-related strategy and frameworks.