Company secretary and director of legal services | Kenya Airways
Habil Waswani
Company secretary and director of legal services | Kenya Airways
Team size: Ten
Major legal advisers: Clyde & Co. (UK), White & Case (US/UK), Eckert Seamans (US), TripleOklaw Advocates (KE), Mohammed Muigai LLP (KE), Oraro & Co (KE), Bowmans or Coulson Harney (KE)
Q&A
What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?
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Leads the legal team in structuring and restructuring complex aircraft leasing and financing arrangements with global financiers and lessors, supporting both existing operations and fleet expansion across the airline’s network. Plays a pivotal role in delivering the airline’s corporate strategy through the development of robust legal frameworks underpinning a major capital restructuring programme and preparations for the introduction of a strategic equity partner.
Provides strategic legal leadership across all operational, employment, regulatory and compliance matters in the multiple jurisdictions in which the airline operates, navigating diverse and often complex legal and regulatory environments. Also leads the legal aspects of sensitive shareholder engagements, including transaction structuring, stakeholder management and the preparation of associated corporate documentation.
Spearheaded the establishment of comprehensive data privacy and compliance frameworks spanning the airline’s international operations, while overseeing enterprise-wide regulatory compliance risks, including adherence to local and international civil aviation regulations critical to air operators. In addition, leads the legal team’s involvement in the negotiation, structuring and management of strategic commercial partnerships and global airline alliances, ensuring compliance with competition and antitrust requirements across relevant jurisdictions.
Oversees complex governance matters across the airline and its subsidiaries, ensuring alignment with international best practice and corporate governance standards. Prior to joining the airline, successfully led the legal workstream for KCB Bank’s landmark acquisition of National Bank of Kenya, managing the commercial, competition, central bank and capital markets regulatory aspects of the transaction. Also played a key role in two successful rights issue capital raisings for another leading financial institution, supporting significant capital mobilisation and strategic growth initiatives.
How do you navigate the legal complexities of cross-border transactions within the East African Community (EAC) and beyond? Indicate the strategies being utislied and challenges so far?
Being a global air transport operation, the legal team has to contend with many complex laws and regulations come in to play both locally and globally because they impact our operations and it is our role to ensure the regulatory compliance items are in check. Areas like general corporate level compliance, competition law, and data privacy have become critical for us as controllers and processors of sensitive customer/passenger data as well as general civil aviation regulations that inform safety of our operations.
We have devised a robust regulatory compliance system and checklists to assist us track all existing and emerging regulatory mattes affecting the airlines operations across the EAC esepcially considering the company is cross listed and has operations in the three countries (KE/UG/TZ). We have the support of outstation teams in this as well as robust network of supporting external legal counsel in this regard.
The strategies deployed are both preventive and anticipatory (based on case or situation data collated from past experiences on matters that can be planned for ahead) combined with reactionary strategies (depending on the nature of new emerging issues which is quire the norm for airline operations).
The main challenge for us remains lack of a standardized legal or regulatory framework for key issues across the EAC that would make operations for companies with presence within all of the EAC efficient and predictable.
Director legal services/ regulatory compliance and company secretary
Kenya Airways
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Director legal services/ regulatory compliance and company secretary
Kenya Airways
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