Petition filed for ouster of Kenya Re chief

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A petitioner has sued Kenya Re chief executive Hillary Wachinga, seeking his removal from office for misconduct amounting to a breach of laws and abuse of office.

In a petition filed at the Milimani Law Courts, Brian Ochieng is seeking to have the reinsurer’s boss declared unfit to hold public office over several claims of misconduct, ranging from interference with procurement processes and competitive recruitment of staff to verbal insults of staff and the payment of a personal fine imposed by the ombudsman.

In the petition, Ochieng has asked the court to find that Wachinga “abused his powers and is unfit to hold any public office” as well as refund 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 and of instead having been unilaterally managing the human resource repository application email to the extent that he is the only one with access.

Wachinga 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”.

“A qualified accountant was preposterously transferred to the property department to collect rent. These redeployments are usually used to punish and silence staff members who question the first respondent’s (Wachinga’s) style of leadership for failing to toe the line,” says Ocheing in the suit.

He also accuses Wachinga of ”hurling derogatory terms and other vitriol at staff and instructing subordinate staff to issue instructions to their heads of departments in contravention of the hierarchy at the workplace”.

The petition also accuses the chief executive of reviewing tender durations without valid reasons or consultations with other members of the executive committee, contrary to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act.

Ochieng also wants the court to compel Wachinga to refund money that Kenya Re paid for a personal fine by the Commission on Administrative Justice as well as money he spent on an official visit to Singapore, which he, however, overstayed, and also for training he attended while on suspension.

“The first respondent (Wachinga), in breach of foreign travel and clearance for chief executive officers of state corporations, travelled to Singapore for a board training for 13 nights contrary to seven days as prescribed by Circular 2(H), making the third respondent (Kenya Re) incur additional illegal costs from the said travel,” says Ochieng in the petition.

“The first respondent unlawfully utilised the funds of the third respondent to pay a personal fine of Sh500,000 imposed by the Commission on Administrative Justice … and on August 19, 2025, the first respondent, while under suspension by the board of management, attended a training paid for by Kenya Re at a cost of Sh5.65 million ($43,478.19). This was in clear contravention of Public Service Commission Regulations.”

Ochieng further accuses Wachinga of inoculating a culture of favouritism and nepotism at the reinsurer as well as applying for loans of up to Sh52 million “and approving transfers from the accounts of Kenya Re without seeking approval of the board”.

It is not the first time that Wachinga is finding himself in trouble on matters to do with the management of staff, and last year he had been suspended over disagreements with management and the board over staff reviews and dismissals.

He was suspended in September 2025, in what was supposed to be a 21-day suspension but ended up staying out for about two months and was reinstated in November last year.