Profile Summary
Karen Koech is a corporate and investment lawyer and an Associate in the Corporate and Commercial practice group at G&A Africa.
- Practice areas
- Corporate, Commercial & Tax · Banking & Finance · Projects, Energy & Infrastructure
- Office
- Nairobi Office
Her practice covers transaction advisory, project finance, corporate governance and company secretarial work. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, a Certified Secretary, an Accredited Governance Auditor and a Certified Legal Auditor, with four years of experience.
She acts for fund managers, property funds and private acquirers on investment transactions, and has also been part of the Kenyan counsel team advising the Government of Kenya, through the National Treasury, on successive sovereign Eurobond issuances and liability management operations, as well as the privatisation of Kenya Pipeline Company by initial public offer. Karen is qualified in Kenya and has worked across Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Mauritius, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. Her cross-border work spans English law sovereign debt issuances listed internationally, the six-jurisdiction diplomatic property partnership, Mauritius holding structures in acquisitions, and blended finance vehicles with pan-African investment mandates. She also instructs and coordinates local counsel across several African jurisdictions and works alongside international counsel on sovereign capital markets deals.
She is currently advising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a six-jurisdiction public private partnership for the development of Kenya's diplomatic properties, and is Company Secretary to the Kenya Network Information Centre, where she advises the board on governance and statutory compliance. Her work has taken her across Kenya, Mauritius and jurisdictions in East, Central and North Africa.
Expertise
- Corporate and Commercial, and Investment Transactions
- Transaction Advisory, Mergers and Acquisitions
- Capital Markets and Sovereign Debt
- Project Finance, Public Private Partnerships and Privatisation
- Corporate Governance, Company Secretarial Practice, and Governance and Legal Audit
- Regulatory Advisory, Legislative Drafting and Intellectual Property
Industries
- Private Equity, Investment and Fund Management
- Financial Services and Banking
- Infrastructure and Projects
- Government and Public Sector
- Development and Non-Profit Sector
Experience
Capital markets and sovereign finance
- Kenyan counsel on a series of sovereign capital markets transactions for the Government of Kenya, comprising a US$2 billion Eurobond restructuring and international sovereign bond issuance of US$1.5 billion, a US$2.25 billion dual-tranche Eurobond issuance with a concurrent tender offer for notes due 2028 and 2032, and liability management involving a tender offer for outstanding US$900 million notes due 2027 and the issuance of new US$1.5 billion notes.
- Kenyan counsel on a US$500 million sovereign Eurobond issued by the Government of Kenya through a private placement taken up by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.
- Member of the key legal team on the privatisation of Kenya Pipeline Company by initial public offer, targeting approximately KES 100 billion, covering legal due diligence, pre-listing advisory, the information memorandum, the employee share ownership plan and post-listing compliance.
Public-private partnerships, projects and privatisation
- Lead associate on Project Balozi, the development of Kenya's diplomatic properties in six African cities (Cairo, Lusaka, Harare, Bujumbura, Kinshasa and Juba) under a public private partnership framework, responsible for coordinating local counsel across all six host jurisdictions on land due diligence, title and permits.
Mergers, acquisitions and investment
- Buy side advisory on the acquisition of 100% of the shares in Kasarani Commercial Development Limited by Batian Income Property Fund, including the Mauritius elements of the due diligence and structuring.
- Lead associate on the US$300,000 partial acquisition of Universal Freight Limited, a Kenyan logistics company, covering the term sheet, structuring, due diligence and competition advice.
- Lead associate on the investment by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in the Agri-Business Capital Fund, a blended finance structure established with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the Government of Luxembourg, targeting 900,000 smallholder farmer households.
Regulatory and corporate governance
- Lead associate on a legal and regulatory framework analysis supporting the operationalisation of the Kenya BioVax Institute, benchmarking its governance and regulatory readiness against international standards and producing a reform roadmap.
- Lead associate on the development of procurement complaint handling rules for the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), aligning the rules with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 and Kenya's electronic Government Procurement system.
- Company Secretary and lead associate to the Kenya Network Information Centre (KeNIC), including advising on the application of the Data Protection Act, 2019 to domain name administration and developing a data sharing policy for WHOIS and registry data.
- Lead associate advising AGRA and the International Centre for Evaluation and Development on the Public Benefit Organizations Act, 2013, and on ICED's restructuring from a company limited by guarantee to a US 501(c)(3) branch.
Awards & Recognition
- Ranked as an up and coming commercial lawyer in Kenya, The Lawyer Africa, Corporate and Commercial, 2026.
Qualifications
Admissions
- Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
- Commissioner for Oaths.
- Certified Secretary, holding a practising certificate issued by the Registration of Certified Public Secretaries Board (2026).
- Accredited Governance Auditor.
- Certified Legal Auditor, holding the Legal and Compliance Auditor Accreditation Certificate.
Academic
- Master of Laws (LL.M.), Law, Democracy and Governance, University of Nairobi (ongoing).
- Advocates Training Programme, Kenya School of Law, 2021 to 2022.
- Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), University of Nairobi, 2020.
Professional Memberships
- Law Society of Kenya
- East Africa Law Society
- Institute of Certified Secretaries
