Name: Brenda A. Kiberenge
Position: Company Secretary and Chief Manager Legal Services
Company: Mwalimu National Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited

Sector Financial (Credit Union)

Worked in the current position for: 3 years and 1 month

Years in-house: 11 years

An overview of my role is:

Ensuring I support the effective and efficient implementation and execution of the business strategic objectives as promulgated by the Board by provision of timely and accurate legal solutions. This entails the development and maintenance of an appropriate legal strategy for the department and organisation that factors how to ensure that the legal advisory services, company secretarial services, custodian services, contract review/drafting services and legal risk management are dovetailed into the Business Strategy.

The best thing about my current job is:

One of the things I love to do is to provide initiative in analysis of problems/challenges towards getting solutions and my role has given me opportunities to do this personally or through teamwork. I therefore love the dynamism of the job as every day comes with a new legal and managerial challenges that needs out of the box analysis and solutions.The dynamism in the role keeps me constantly challenged and growing in my knowledge and skills on legal solution provision and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The most challenging thing about my current job is:

Understanding the business noting that my employer’s business and that of its subsidiaries spans over different sectors thus with different facets and practices areas of law. Further every company and every board is different. Therefore, it is critical that the I know and understand the business spaces we operate in as I can be called upon to give advice or provide solutions at very short notice and therefore I have had to be agile to be able to advise quickly and decisively.

My most pivotal career move:

is my current position which entails not just offering apt legal solutions for my employer but also three of its subsidiaries who have business interests in finance, real estate, banking and insurance.  I mark this is my most pivotal career move as it has exposed me to a myriad of different sectors and areas of legal practice, unlike in my previous roles where I became a specialist in the single area of business that those employers are domicile. 

What advice would you give your younger self?

There are four pieces of advice that I would give my younger self. First, that time is an asset that one never gets back so use it wisely – so do everything at its right time. Secondly, that it all comes together with hard work and determination therefore relax and continue to nurture these two values. Three, life is about balance i.e., work life balance – ensure that you dedicate ample time to each so that you are well rounded and thus more productive. Finally, network..network..network as we were the sum of our connections. I concur with the wise words of Charlene Walters the author of Launch Your Inner Entrepreneur: 10 Mindset Shifts for Women to Take Action, Unleash Creativity, and Achieve Financial Success who said that “Networking is a deposit in the bank of your future and in your startup. It won’t happen immediately, but if you do it right, you will continue to receive its dividends for years.” This not only rings true for my professional work, but I have also seen it manifest in my personal life.

The key influencers that have shaped my journey?

my parents, the Late Eng. Jecton Kiberenge and Mrs. Pheobe Odhiambo, who have shown me and my siblings that hard work, focus and values bear fruit. They came from nothing but due to a clear vision of where they want to be as a family unit and the values they want to embody I can confidently indicate that I am irrefutable evidence that with the right focus, hard work and values anything is possible.

My favourite pro bono or volunteer activity is:

mentorship of teenagers and young professionals about the need for correct values, focus and hard work, and that there is time for everything so long as you do things at the right time.

If I were not practising law, I would probably be: 

an Air Hostess as I love to travel and experience new cultures, cuisine and shopping. As an Air Hostess this would be the cheapest way to travel to as many countries as possible while still earning money, plus I was advised that after 10 years of service I would be able to get free air tickets for life! What can beat that for a lover of travel.

What (singular) achievement are you most proud of? 

I am proud of the persons I have had an impact on their lives either directly or indirectly. As I write this I am particularly proud of a young lawyer I encouraged when she decided to open her law firm and she is now doing so well…I admire her courage in stepping out into self-employment.

What’s something you love doing that you’re terrible at? And what’s something you really do not like doing that you’re great at?

I love to bake yet I am not able to follow a recipe, so my cakes or cookies are usually interesting to say the least. I have realised over time that I am good at making friends, yet I really hate small talk…so somehow I am perceived as an outgoing person.