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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the British Business Association of Kenya and the British Chambers of Commerce Kenya?

In 2014 the Department International Trade (DIT) (now DBT) launched an initiative to double UK exports by 2020. As part of this, they undertook to build on existing British business networks, providing them with financial support to offer more services and be part of a global brand. In Kenya, the British Business Association of Kenya (BBAK) had been in existence for many years and agreed to support this initiative – membership is therefore formally in the BBAK for legal and fiscal reasons.

Subscriptions run from 1 Oct to 30 Sep, there is no pro rata difference, though this may be considered by the Committee if you join after 1st April and have not received any benefits earlier in the year.
Please see the ‘How to Join’ page

Ethiopia – has an informal group organised via DBT officers in the Embassy
Rwanda – the High Commission have an officer responsible for promoting UK-Rwanda
Somalia – nothing yet
South Sudan – nothing yet
Tanzania – already has a thriving British Business Group in Tanzania, with chapters in Dar es Salaam and Arusha.  DBT officers in the High Commission
Uganda – there’s an established British Chamber of Commerce Uganda. DBT officers in the High Commission

We have informal links to all of these and can provide introductions and contact details, as well as to the DBT offices.

We have a very close working relationship with the DBT offices in the British High Commission, Nairobi, co-ordinating our support to events, contacts etc; and the CEO works out of the High Commission for part of the week.

Our services are complimentary but different. The BCCK focuses on delivering networking, information, advocacy and marketing to members – many of whom may not qualify for DBT support. DBT predominantly support UK companies coming to Kenya and will increasingly use BCCK for contact management and to organise events. Many of DBT’s services are chargeable.

About Mrs. Sonal Tejpar

Sonal Sejpal is currently the Chairperson of the British Chamber of Commerce in Kenya. Sonal is a partner at ALN Kenya | Anjarwalla & Khanna, one of the leading law firms in East Africa and the founding member of ALN, an alliance of leading corporate law firms across 15 key African jurisdictions. She has been with the firm for over 24 years and leads the firm’s banking and finance practice in addition to actively supporting A&K Tanzania, A&K’s affiliate firm in Tanzania. Her practice focuses on banking & finance, aviation, syndicated and project finance, restructurings, and insolvency. She also handles corporate commercial matters and employment law.

Sonal is the Chairperson of the British Chamber of Commerce and sits on the board of the Employment Law Alliance and is Regional Chair for Africa & the Middle East.

She is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and is a licensed Insolvency Practitioner in Kenya (one of only two lawyers in the entire country to have qualified as such).

She is ranked as a leading lawyer in Kenya by Chambers Global, IFLR1000, and Legal 500. Sonal graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Westminster, England.

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About Mr. Anthony Muthusi

Anthony has over 22 years of experience gained working with the Big Four that covers restructuring and turnaround planning, mergers and acquisition, financial due diligence, business valuation and private equity advisory. He is a licensed insolvency practitioner and a Certified Trustee from College of Insurance of Kenya.

Anthony holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Nairobi. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and has served as a board member at Endeavor and the British Chamber of Commerce.

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About Mrs. Jane Karuku MGH

Ms. Jane Karuku is the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer EABL. Ms. Karuku has been the Managing Director of Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) since July 2015, a member of the EABL Board since 2013, and a Board member of the British Chamber of Commerce Kenya.

Ms. Karuku is a dynamic business leader, with strong management experience spanning over 20 years in FMCG and Non-Governmental organisations. Prior to her appointment to KBL, she was the President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She has also previously held a number of senior positions in various companies including Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary General, Telkom Kenya and Managing Director, Cadbury East and Central Africa. Prior to that Ms. Karuku worked with Farmers Choice Kenya and Kenya Cooperative Creameries.

She has been a member of the board of Barclays Bank of Kenya and Junior Achievement-Kenya. She is currently the Chairperson of the Kenya Covid-19 Fund, Chairperson of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Board, a Trustee at the United States International University (USIU) and is a board member at Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Ms. Karuku holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of Nairobi and an MBA in Marketing from the National University of California.

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About Mr. Robert Hutchinson

Robert Hutchinson (Group Head – Corporate Risk
Management, Castor Vali Africa Limited; Board
Member BCCK)

Robert is a seasoned strategic leader and risk
management professional with over 20 years’
experience guiding organizations through complexity,
uncertainty and change. He is the Group head –
Corporate Risk of Castor Vali Africa, leading business
strategy, client engagement and regional growth. Robert
advises boards and executive teams on identifying and
managing risks to enable responsible, scalable
investment across Africa, with particular focus on
infrastructure, climate risk and societal resilience. He
has supported multinational clients and development
finance institutions in fragile and conflict-affected
environments, including Sudan and Ethiopia.

Previously, Robert was Business Resilience Director for
PwC Africa, where he led enterprise risk management,
physical security, and crisis coordination for 16
countries during COVID-19. His earlier career includes
senior consultancy roles in natural resources and
distinguished service in the British Army, achieving early
promotion to Major and serving in operational and
strategic intelligence roles.
Robert combines deep African market insight with
international risk expertise and mentors emerging
leaders on decision-making, resilience and team
development.

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About Ms. Joyce Kibe

Joyce joined the Bank in 2021. Her strong commercial acumen, skilful stakeholder engagement and ability to transform insights from data into award-winning marketing strategies has led to her achieving extraordinary business results throughout her career. Joyce has 22 years of experience in marketing, communications, consumer insights, innovation and strategic planning having worked for British American Tobacco and East African Breweries. She has held various leadership roles in Kenya, Nigeria, UK and Zimbabwe.

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About Mr. Titus Mukora

Mr Titus has specialised in transfer pricing for the last 16 years. Before that he was a legal associate and a general tax consultant. He has performed numerous transfer pricing studies across industries in numerous territories in Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. He has also performed transfer pricing studies for companies in Australia. He has experience in compliance, structuring and defense work and is currently focusing on the incorporation of transfer pricing in the business strategies of companies from a compliance, transaction and supply chain perspective.

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About Mrs. Patricia Ithau

I am a true believer in my continent Africa, and need to build on our human capital so to market ourselves in order to transform our fortunes on the global stage. Passionate and drawing inspiration from making a difference in everything I do, I believe I have the opportunity to build role models in the corporate and entrepreneurial world, serving as a catalyst and connecting resources to help enterprise overcome adversity and seize opportunities to realize their full potential.
That belief is underpinned by my love for identifying enduring consumer and commercial insights to support the development of brands and grow businesses, that actualized in a career spanning 25 years across 3 global companies, Unilever, Diageo/EABL and L’Oreal. In the last 8 years of that career my focus was on setting up new organizations and opening new frontiers as Managing Director Uganda Breweries Ltd, Managing Director EABL International and my last role in the FMCG sector, setting up L’Oreal East Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of the Global multinational as its inaugural Managing Director. This was indeed a crowning glory having in a little over 3 years grown a business with $25million revenue, employing over 270 people, manufacturing 40 million units p.a. and closing one of the first of its kind acquisitions of a local business, in this market.
I pivoted my passion to drive scaling and transformation of SME’s the largest job creation sector in all emerging economies. I make this a reality as the Regional Director for the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies - Seed, an initiative out of the Graduate School of Business, that supports transformation of SME’s in the East and Southern Africa region, through a year-long program. The program in the last 5 years has supported scaling of over 200 small to mid-size companies, demonstrating real impact through the age old idiom ‘teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.
I currently sit on the Boards of; ABSA Bank Kenya Ltd; the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Jambojet Ltd and Vivo ActiveWear Ltd, all of which lean on my expertise growing enterprise. I build on the positive impact of development funding, as a board member of Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), the multi donor initiative with the overall goal of reducing poverty in the East African region through reduction of trade barriers and increased trade competitiveness of the region; and bring to life my enduring desire to connect corporate business with social sustainability investment, as a Trustee on the Board of the Vodafone Foundation, UK.

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About Mr. John Rogers

John leads the East Africa business for Turner & Townsend – a global professional services firm operating in the real estate, infrastructure, and natural resources sectors. He is a member of the Turner & Townsend Africa Board and a chair of the East Africa Board. Before joining Turner & Townsend, he was the managing director for MML formerly Mentor Management Limited, an Actis owned company. In 2018 he oversaw the merger between MML and Turner & Townsend. Since Joining Turner & Townsend he has increased the companies’ footprint to 7 countries in East Africa and is now leading the entry into other new markets. He is a commercially astute, engaging and results driven executive with more than 15 years’ construction experience and has worked previously in the Middle East, UK & Ireland. He has led multicultural teams through the complete process of project development, procurement and realization in both Private and Public Sectors. He has worked with governments, industry authorities, asset owners, investors, capital programmes and supply chain partners. Through leading teams to deliver great outcomes on projects, John has helped deliver lasting benefits for organisations, economies, and societies. Some of the recent notable projects that he has led include; The Nexus Green Solar Water Pumping systems funded by UKEF, the East Africa Breweries Limited Biomass Steam Plants in Kenya and Uganda, the Nairobi Gate Industrial Park, the Kenya Roads Annuity Programmes (Lot 15 and Lot 18) and Tilenga project that is part of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project;just to name a few. He is passionate about data, technology and raising standards in construction in Africa, driving productivity, safety, efficiency, and sustainability. He believes that by leading the way digitally, there’s an opportunity to set the pace and make a positive contribution in the transformation of our industry.
John brings with him a wealth of knowledge from different geographies and profiles and his involvement on the board will see him;

Connect organisations and programmes to leading practice,
Support opportunities for successful investment,
Unlock and explore innovation opportunities and global best practice

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