Dedicated to Enterprise!

Umsizi LLP is a firm of Advocates, Governance Advisors, Corporate Secretaries and Dispute Resolvers driven by several passions: to provide practical and timely legal solutions to entrepreneurs, innovators and disruptors in various sectors. We listen actively, research extensively, plan meticulously and execute fastidiously to meet each client’s needs.

Our Services

Competition and Consumer Law: Ringfencing your Turf

We will help you navigate the laws and regulations governing your interactions with your customers and your competitors. This includes advising on your customer engagements and understanding your competitive landscape.

Conveyancing and Real Estate: Safeguarding your Property

We have extensive experience in real estate matters ranging from sale and purchase transactions; banking and securities; and landlord and tenancy matters. We have a good grasp of emerging legislation in this area, and will guide you through each transaction touching on your real estate.

Corporate and Commercial Law: Protecting your Business

We will walk with you throughout the life cycle of your business, right from inception. We will therefore advise you in areas such as establishment and registration of all types of business and social enterprise (including not-for profit organisations); your contractual rights, duties and obligations; your acquisitions, disposals and corporate restructuring; your mergers and acquisitions. We will also work with you in charting your business succession plans beyond the founding visionaries.

Corporate Governance: Clarifying your Roles

Not sure what your Shareholders can demand from you as a Board or Management? Need clarity on the distinction of roles as between your Shareholders, Board and Management? We have timely and accurate solutions for you to enable you effectively engage each and every stakeholder in your organisation. We also offer company secretarial services for a more sustained partnership with you.

Corporate Governance Advisory and Governance Audits: Evaluating your Structures

Your Shareholders, Board and Senior Management team need to be on a dedicated journey of continuous improvement to ensure that your organisation meets the highest standards of governance scrutiny. We will design and administer your Board evaluations and draft your corporate governance policies, including risk governance. We are accredited Governance Auditors, and we will help you structure, implement and regularly evaluate your governance processes through regular governance audits.

Dispute Resolution: Resolving your Battles

Disputes cost everyone involved time and money, both of which are finite resources that can be better applied to more rewarding pursuits. We are therefore in the business of helping you avoid legal tussles and/or resolve them as quickly but conclusively as possible through Mediation and Arbitration. Our expertise in dispute resolution ranges from commercial disputes, shareholder disputes, and workplace disputes to family disputes.

Intellectual Property: Securing your Ideas and Innovations

Have you invested in building your brand or perhaps developed the next earth-shattering innovation? We will help you protect your intellectual property and ensure that any infringement is quickly remedied. We will also make sure that you don’t (inadvertently) infringe anyone else’s intellectual property rights. Our services in this respect include registering trademarks and other intellectual property rights, and managing your intellectual property portfolio to avoid any lapses in protection.

Regulatory and Legal Compliance: Keeping you on the right side of the Law

With the numerous National and County laws in force and continuous enactment, we will help you ensure that you are on the right side of the law by assisting you to prepare licensing and other legal requirement checklists specific to your industry or location to ensure stress-free operations.

Workplace Relations: Securing your Employment Relationships

At the heart of your business is a team that is committed to delivering your brand promise. We offer services touching on employment law and workplace relations ranging from drafting employment policies; drafting employment contracts; structuring employee incentive schemes; and managing occupational health and safety regulations.

The Partners

Jackie Oyuyo Githinji

Jackie is dedicated to excellence. She also bought into the hype about ‘time being money’ and is therefore invested in utilising these two resources efficiently. What this means for you as our client is that she will invest as much time with you as required to enable you articulate your specific needs, and that she will work with you to achieve sustainable results. She is also committed to making organisations tick – demystifying corporate governance in a way that makes sense for each entity that she deals with – and is adept at tackling regulatory compliance.

Jackie has had considerable experience in a broad range of corporate advisory matters ranging from shareholder negotiations; capital raising and legal due diligence. In addition to her legal and corporate secretarial qualifications, she is a Chartered Arbitrator* and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Certified and Judiciary-accredited Mediator, an accredited Governance Auditor duly certified by the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK), and holds an MBA in Global Technology Management. *[Kenya’s third female Chartered Arbitrator]

Jackie’s professional career began at Walker Kontos Advocates and she was admitted to the Bar in 2001, after which she held various c-suite positions in diverse sectors including real estate; the non-profit sector; and financial services having served as Group Company Secretary of the Jubilee Group overseeing the Group’s insurance and related operations in Eastern Africa and Mauritius, served as Company Secretary and Head of Legal Services at Family Bank Limited, and been a consultant program coordinator for the Ford Foundation (Kenya).

In addition to her professional practice, she currently serves as a non-executive director on various boards including financial services, non-profit organisations, dispute resolution bodies and State corporations.

Jackie is regularly invited to speak and train in various professional capacities, a task she undertakes with the utmost diligence and humility, and is a contributor to the Global Legal Group International’s Comparative Legal Guide (Arbitration and Litigation).

She’s also a dedicated practitioner and teacher of Bikram Yoga … look it up!

Jackie’s Professional Memberships and Affiliations include: The Law Society of Kenya, The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, The Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya, The African Arbitration Association, The International Mediation Institute and Women Corporate Directors (WCD-Kenya).

Reba Chabeda - Ouko

Reba is one of the founding Partners at Umsizi LLP. She has over 15 Years’ post admission experience in Corporate and Commercial Law, Corporate Governance and Company Secretarial Services in Kenya. Reba holds a Master of Laws Degree in Commercial Law from the University of Cape Town and a Degree in Law from the University of Nairobi. She is also an Advocate of the High of Court of Kenya, a Certified Secretary, a Certified Accountant, a Certified Governance Auditor and a Certified Mediator.

Her specific focus is in providing legal advisory, governance advisory and company secretarial services to individuals, SMEs, medium and large companies from incorporation to establishment. She also provides support to Companies going through capital restructures and requiring due diligence, especially those receiving funds from various investors or investment funds. She also provides Board support to both Profit and Non-Profit Organisations, and Governance Audit services to Public Companies Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Reba has worked within the East African Region in various industries including Property Development and Real Estate, Oil Marketing, Cement Manufacture, Banking and Insurance. Having worked within corporations, Reba has the ability to translate a client’s legal problem into workable and legally compliant business solutions that allow business people carry on their daily operations stress free.

Currently, Reba is the Corporate Secretary for Kentaste Products Limited (FMCG Sector), Sendy Limited (Transport & Logistics Sector), PDM Kenya Limited (Property Management and Development Sector), PS Kenya (Non-Profit-Health Sector).

Reba is frequently called upon to make presentations at different forums including Membership Organisations and Boards on topics including: Corporate Governance and Compliance under the Companies Act 2015; Effective Board Practices; Board Evaluation; Highlights of the Code of Governance for State Corporations( Mwongozo); Public Benefits Organisations Act Vs NGO Co-ordination Act; Insolvency and Business Registration Laws; Legal Awareness for Start-ups, Virtual Meetings and Technology.

Since November 2019 Reba has been an independent director at M Oriental Bank Limited chairing the Risk and Compliance Committee. Between March 2017 and March 2020, she was a Council Member of Karatina University Chairing the Resource Mobilization and Governance Committee. She was tasked with conducting the Governance Audits of Total Kenya PLC (Oil Marketing) for the Years ended 2018 and 2020.

Reba currently sits as a Member of the Task Force that continuously reviews Governance Standards of the Institute of Certified Secretaries in Kenya since 2016. Reba also lends her skills and experience to the public sector by working as the Chief Examiner for the Certified Secretaries Examination at KASNEB since 2019.

When not on the clock, Reba enjoys a good book, discovering new recipes and running around her neighbourhood in the name of exercise.