Wachinga's court fight reopens Kenya Re's history of boardroom wrangles

The Kenya Re chief executive claims a plan has been hatched to unceremoniously kick him out of office, reigniting the seemingly never-ending boardroom wars that have dogged past leadership at the State-owned reinsurer.

Hillary Wachinga says in court papers there has been an ongoing war since he was appointed to lead the company in 2023 after he beat several of his colleagues to the corner office—some of them senior to him at the time—which has since created internal friction.

In the court papers, he has documented an ongoing onslaught, including what he termed a smear campaign on social media and complaints sent to the National Treasury, as well as a board suspension in late 2025.

Wachinga filed the papers in response to a petition trying to remove him from office. In the petition filed in early July this year, Brian Ochieng wants the court to declare Wachinga unfit for public service on account of several allegations, including taking over the human resource functions, verbal abuse of staff and illegally spending Kenya Re’s money.

The money allegedly includes payment by Kenya Re of a personal fine imposed by the Ombudsman, travel costs that exceeded set limits incurred while on an overseas trip and training fees paid by the company while the chief executive officer  (CEO) was on suspension.

The petition follows previous disciplinary action in September 2025, where Wachinga was suspended for two months by the Kenya Re board over management disputes regarding staff dismissals, before being reinstated in November 2025.

The latest fight appears to follow a familiar script at Kenya Re, where past chief executives have had to fight to stay in office.

Wachinga’s predecessor Jadiah Mwarania was suddenly fired in 2018 before he was reinstated by court. The board had earlier in 2010 defied a court directive to reinstate Mwarania’s predecessor, Eunice Mbogo, and later paid for it when court fined the corporation for defying the order.

In the July 2026 petition, Ochieng—who describes himself as a lawyer said he filed the petition in public interest— and has asked the court to find that Wachinga “abused his powers and is unfit to hold any public office” as well as refund of the personal fine that the company paid on his behalf and other money that Ochieng said Kenya Re paid contrary to set rules and regulations.

Ochieng also accuses Wachinga of interfering with competitive recruitment - having instead been unilaterally managing the human resource repository application email to the extent that he is the only one with access.

The CEO has also been accused of redeploying staff at Kenya Re from “departments of their specialisation as per their academic testimonials and training to departments where they lack skills and expertise to discharge their new job descriptions”.

Wachinga, however, said the accusations, including the allegations of bullying, intimidation and harassment of staff, were baseless, instead claiming that he has been the victim of abuse.

The CEO claims that his ascent to the position did not sit well with some of his colleagues, who had at some point been his direct supervisors and now have to report to him, and are now pushing to dislodge him.

Before he was appointed chief executive, Wachinga served as head of internal risk and compliance.

“I was appointed group managing director of Kenya Re three years ago. At the time, there was significant resistance to my appointment since I was under some of my current direct reportees, but I have successfully run the institution profitably. Annually, the corporation makes more than Sh4 billion profit,” says Wachinga in the court papers.

“Last year, when my first term as MD (Managing Director) was coming to an end and I had applied for renewal, I was subjected to an intense social media campaign, frivolous complaints to regulatory institutions and the executive arm of the government, including to the Head of Public Service and National Treasury, by unnamed folks who wanted to push my term not to be renewed. But I prevailed and currently serve as group managing director.”

He says despite the unwarranted attacks and false accusations against him, he has ensured there is good governance at the corporation and taken a tough stance against corruption and mismanagement.

"I have also protected the corporation’s assets, especially land, from land-grabbers and protected the public interest. In 2025 alone, it grew the corporation’s asset base by eight per cent to Sh72 billion.”

He also claims that the petition filed by Ochieng is a “proxy petition by the same persons who have perpetrated a hate campaign against him.”

Wachinga says he based his belief that Ochieng was being used as a proxy on factors such as the petitioner's access to confidential documents from Kenya Re. He argues that Ochieng did not invoke his rights under the Access to Information Act to get hold of the confidential information from the company.

He also claims that Ochieng had gone to court to challenge Kenya Re’s procurement decisions without first exhausting remedies provided by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act.

"Ochieng, who is a member of the public, should first exhaust the remedies available under the Act by lodging a complaint with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) before filing the instant case in court. The PPRA has the institutional capacity, expertise and knowledge to investigate all allegations and make appropriate recommendations from the objective standpoint.”

When he was appointed the chief executive of Kenya Re in March 2023, Wachinga took over an office that has historically been characterised by bitter boardroom fights and courtroom battles.

With assets exceeding Sh72 billion as at December 2025, annual revenues at Sh17 billion and underwriting reinsurance business across Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia, Kenya Re is among the country's most financially significant State-owned entities.

This has also made its leadership one of the most fiercely contested, attracting both business and political interests.

Over the last two decades, transitioning from one chief executive to the next and staying at the top for the incumbent has not been easy.

Other than the smear campaigns that Wachinga alleges have been designed to tarnish his name and even push him out of office, he was on September 2, 2025, suspended for two months following a dispute over claims of unprocedural dismissal of two employees.

He would go on to sue the board but later withdrew the court case. The board in November 2025 lifted the suspension and reinstated him as chief executive.

Other chief executives at Kenya Re could be said to have experienced near-similar woes as Wachinga has been experiencing.

The tenure of his immediate predecessor, Mwarania, was also marked by boardroom battles, including his dismissal in 2018 over claims of gross misconduct, non-performance and loss of trust and confidence in his leadership.

He challenged the firing at the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which found that the dismissal was unfair and ordered his reinstatement.

Mwarania again found himself fighting the board of Kenya Re in early 2023 when he sought an extension of his term at the helm of the reinsurer in what would have been his third term.

Before Mwarania, the Kenya Re board had in 2010 declined to consider renewal of Mbogo's term, who had been appointed in 2007.

She had reportedly requested another term as chief executive six months before her tenure expired in April 2010, as required by law.

The board, however, went quiet on her and instead locked her out of office on expiry of her term and appointed Mwarania as acting chief executive.

Mbogo went to court challenging the decision, arguing that the company’s board of directors together with Treasury had breached her contract by failing to respond to her request for renewal.

The court ordered Kenya Re to reinstate her in 2010, but the company defied the order, which would later result in Kenya Re being hit with a Sh1 million fine for ignoring the court order.

 Mbogo had taken over from Johnson Githaka, who had in December 2006 been kicked out by then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya for alleged financial misappropriation. 

Githaka, who had been at the helm of Kenya Re since 2002, was in 2019 convicted of fraudulently acquiring public property and fined Sh15.1 million.