Businesses operating in Africa have to navigate and manage a delicate yet complex relationship that is ever dynamic in the face of turbulent political systems and economic crises. Decisions governments make and changing political regimes may have priorities that have significant impact on our clients’ business operations and investment decisions.
Our support to private sector clients includes advising on proposed or imminent legislation or amendments to ensure compliance with the policy and legislative changes that may impact on their business across our practice areas.
The Firm’s lawyers work closely with policy making institutions, government departments, legislators, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to draft and advocate legislation in the public finance, energy and infrastructure sectors to keep pace with international best practice.
The Firm works with clients to ensure their internal policies and practices are aligned with their sector regulators as well as preparing Codes of Conduct for various partners they transact with in compliance with applicable law and international best practice.
The Firm coordinates the registration, licensing and permitting of our client’s projects with the regulatory authorities in the water and sanitation, energy, agriculture, ICT, environment and construction sectors. This service includes regular monitoring through our comprehensive compliance matrices to ensure our clients not only secure, but also maintain and are eligible to renew their licenses for purposes of business continuity.
Our lawyers have been involved in the development of a Guidebook for sub-national governments in Kenya and regulations for the implementation of development fees as an infrastructure financing mechanism under the Physical and Land Use Planning Act. Other draft policies and regulations at sub-national level have included regulations for the establishment of specialized development corporations as well as the establishment of Enterprise Development Funds.
With Kenya transitioning to a competitive electricity market, the Firm has been actively involved in advocacy and engagement with the energy regulator and other key stakeholders and has prepared submissions to proposed regulations and directives on Net Metering, Tariff Reviews, Electricity Market, Bulk Supply, Open Access Regulations, Minigrids, Energy Management and Solar PV project implementation.