MILESTONES

Technovations are specific intellectual property rights in Kenya's Industrial Act, Part XIV, found in many developing countries and WIPO. They reward employees for suggesting unconsidered technological solutions beyond their job duties. A recent case resulted in a win for our client, upheld on appeal despite the employer's challenge.

A group of investors bought time share units for luxury holiday villas at the Kenyan coast, after being promised ownership by the developer if they paid a one-time fee. Although they paid, the developer denied them access to the properties. The investors believe this goes against their constitutional rights and are pursuing legal action.

The Kenyan constitution allows dual citizenship for qualified individuals. Citizenship can be acquired by birth or marriage. We represented a foreigner born and educated in Kenya, who worked in banking and started a business. After a decade of denied citizenship, we filed a judicial review case. The court agreed and ordered the state to issue her citizenship documents.

In 2022, we held a conference for family-owned tea businesses to teach them corporate succession planning skills. These businesses need proper structures and documents for successful planning and management. We are assisting tea factories to improve their governance for better succession planning and investment.

With changing global tea prices, what type of commodities contracts should tea factories consider?

We represented a Chinese company that hired a Chinese national in China, who briefly worked on a project in Kenya. The contract specified arbitration in Beijing under Chinese law and in Chinese. We objected when the claimant wanted to file in Kenya.

Both parties were Chinese, signed the contract in China, and mostly executed it there, with salaries paid in Yuans. The claimant's time in Kenya was short and part of the project.

We represented a country manager of an East African airline who was wrongly fired and defamed, preventing her from finding a new job. Her employer posted her profile in ads for 30 days and on dontemployme.com. This led to her not securing another job. Besides compensation for wrongful termination, the court awarded her Kshs.5 million for defamation damages.

False mental incapacity diagnosis and incarceration leads to a constitutional petition

We acted for a client whose business partners worked together to falsely accuse him of being mentally unfit. They collaborated with a psychiatrist to create a fake diagnosis and had him forcibly committed. Meanwhile, they tried to take his shares by claiming he lacked mental capacity. While he was locked up, he asked for an independent medical opinion and legal help but received none. He obtained several third-party opinions declaring him healthy and filed a constitutional petition for damages.

We represented a financial services company in pursuing an expungement proceeding against a competitor whose trademark was similar and was likely to cause confusion. The competitor, seeking to ride on the goodwill of our client sought to register a similar trademark for the same class of goods. Our client had spent a lot of money on research and marketing its brand.

We provide consultations to establish family governance, including constitutions and dispute resolution policies. Additionally, we assist in forming family trusts to prevent property disputes by creating specialized entities that reflect family dynamics. This involves transferring key assets into a tax-exempt trust company, ensuring family ownership without third-party claims.
We also advise on estate planning for digital assets, guiding clients on wills and technology transfer agreements for continuity.

We have curated bespoke trainings for our clients using our Corporate Law For Non-Legal Managers Handbook. We are able to provide a bespoke training based on your needs.

Acted for a shareholder in a constitutional petition against a regulator in the financial services market. The regulator sought to wind up the licensed company without giving the shareholder information on the statement of affairs and the net assets of the company. This was contrary to the shareholder’s constitutional rights to property and information.

We have participated in a number of consultancies and research areas that have had a positive impact on the business environment. These include:

Climatic change, carbon credits and diversified income, Intellectual property, Artificial intelligence, Sports & entertainment law, Corporate finance derivatives, Offshore company formation, Tax avoidance, Choice of law contracts