Event report
Breakfast meeting: the quarterly counsel
Earlier this week, the FCCK, in partnership with Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr incorporating Kieti Law LLP (CDH Kenya), hosted the inaugural edition of The Quarterly Counsel. The executive breakfast brought together C-suite executives, board members, and senior decision-makers for a discussion on AI, corporate governance, and emerging legal risks in Kenya.
Led by CDH Kenya experts Shem Otanga (Partner, technology, media & telecommunications and corporate and commercial) and Arnold Mutisya (senior associate, corporate and commercial), the session went beyond whether businesses should adopt AI to explore what responsible board-level adoption actually looks like.
Key takeaways from the discussion included:
- Board-level oversight: AI governance cannot be relegated solely to IT teams; it requires active visibility, clear accountability, and structured board oversight to manage risk effectively.
- Navigating legal and operational risks: practical challenges such as "shadow AI," vendor risk, cybersecurity, data protection compliance under Kenya’s data protection act, and overall directors' duties must be proactively addressed.
- Regulatory readiness: organizations must align their internal risk frameworks with Kenya’s evolving AI regulatory landscape to stay compliant and operational.
- Augmenting human judgment: AI should serve to enhance human judgment, not replace it, making robust governance around technology tools just as critical as the technology itself.
Thank you to the CDH Kenya team for guiding such a practical exchange, and to all the senior leaders who joined us and contributed so actively to the conversation!
We look forward to continuing these dialogues at the intersection of law, business, and technology in future editions of The Quarterly Counsel.
