About

Fred is a commercially savvy, pragmatic, and solutions-driven leader with over 20 years of experience spanning both corporate and private legal practice. He currently serves as Director, Regulatory Affairs and Acting Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Safaricom PLC, where he provides strategic oversight across Public Relations and Corporate Communications, Legal and Secretarial Services, Regulatory and Public Policy, and Sustainable Business and Social Impact.

Fred re-joined Safaricom in 2017 as Head of Legal and Secretarial Services, following his tenure at Seacom Ltd, where he oversaw legal and regulatory affairs across seven countries. Prior to Seacom, he served as Principal In-House Counsel at Safaricom for six years, having begun his legal career as a Legal Associate at Kaplan & Stratton Advocates.

In his current role, Fred is responsible for elevating Safaricom’s public reputation and embedding purpose-driven leadership across stakeholder engagements. He has played a pivotal role in shaping multi-stakeholder policy advocacy, fostering industry-wide collaboration, and driving strategic regulatory interventions aligned with national priorities and commercial sustainability. He was instrumental in securing Safaricom’s submarine cable landing rights license and leading Safaricom’s successful bid for the Universal Service Fund (USF) Phase 4. He also contributed to the development of landmark policies in Kenya, including regulatory amendments that allow refugees to access telecommunications services and participate in the digital economy.

Fred is widely recognized for cultivating high-performance teams. Under his leadership, Safaricom’s legal department won the Africa Legal Awards’ Corporate Legal Department of the Year in 2022, the first team outside South Africa to receive the honor and was similarly recognized as Corporate Legal Department of the Year by Law Society of Kenya in 2019.

He pioneered “Legal Mashinani,” a transformative framework that embeds legal expertise at the grassroots of Safaricom’s operations. This initiative repositioned the legal function from reactive support to proactive business partnering, deepening collaboration with cross-functional teams and enhancing legal agility.

Fred also champions the cross-functional integration of legal expertise, encouraging lawyers to expand their capabilities beyond traditional roles. This has led to advocates taking up strategic positions in departments such as Customer Privacy, enabling the devolution of legal knowledge across the business.

His excellence has earned him numerous accolades. In 2025, he was named Leading In-House Counsel in the Private Sector and Overall Honoree in the Top 50 In-House Counsel – Kenya by Nairobi Legal Awards Trust and Law Society of Kenya. He was also listed in the 2024 Legal 500 East Africa General Counsel Power List and received the 2023 Safaricom CEO Award for his strategic role in effective tax risk mitigation.

Fred’s regional influence is reflected in his appointment to the inaugural Advisory Board of the Africa Corporate and Governance Counsel (ACGC) Forum, and his shortlisting for the Regulatory (Non-Financial Services) category at Lexology’s Global Counsel Awards (2023).

He holds an LL.B (Hons) from University of Bedfordshire and a Postgraduate Diploma from Kenya School of Law. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Commissioner for Oaths.

Outside work, Fred enjoys traveling, reading novels and go-karting.