FCS JACQUELINE WAIHENYA C.ARB/FCIARB is the Chairman of the Institute of Certified Secretaries (ICS) 2025. She is an ICS-accredited Governance Auditor and is a certified Legal and Compliance Auditor by the Kenya School of Law. In 2021, she served on the Taskforce to the Review of the Certified Public Secretary Act, which presented its report to the Honourable Attorney General and the Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury & Economic Planning. This Report has served as the bedrock for the Certified Governance Secretaries Bill, 2023. She is also an ordinary member of the Institute of Directors IOD Kenya Branch and is a Director at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Kenya. She has recently completed London School of Economics & Politics course entitled “Artificial Intelligence: Law, Policy and Governance”.
Jacqueline is a highly accomplished commercial lawyer and dispute resolver with advanced competencies in governance, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and international commercial law. She holds several fellowships in these disciplines as a Fellow of ICS, and a Chartered Arbitrator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCiarb). She is also a Doctoral Fellow in the University of Nairobi (UON) Faculty of Law under the Women, Children, Nature Rights & Environmental Governance (WCNREG) Program. She has further risen to the apex leadership of the Governance and ADR professional bodies in Kenya, that is to say ICS and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb) Kenya Branch.
She is a Chartered Arbitrator, and Emerita Chair of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb) Kenya Branch. She serves on the International Chamber of Commerce(ICC) Kenya Board. She holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree in International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University of London. Jacqueline represented Ciarb Kenya Branch in the National Steering Committee for the Formulation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy 2020 where she convened the NSC Sub-Committee on Legislative Proposals. The Kenyan Cabinet approved the National ADR Policy in March 2023, which has now been placed before Parliament as Sessional Paper No.4 of 2024. The Bills annexed to the Sessional Paper have also been published for public participation, and these are the Dispute Resolution Bill, 2025; the Construction Adjudication Bill, 2025; and the Arbitration Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025
Her proficiency further extends to construction adjudication holding an advanced certificate from Ciarb. Her expertise is bolstered by her connection to the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation plus her specialized training from King's College London and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) in Construction Law. She is also a Chartered Mediator accredited by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), FIFA's Football Tribunal, and the Kenya Judiciary. She is listed on international arbitration panels including Ciarb, Nairobi Centre for International Arbitration (NCIA), Arbitration Foundation of South Africa (AFSA), ICC, and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA).
Jacqueline is an Advocate of the High Court and Managing Partner at JWM Law LLP. She holds a second LL.M from the University of Nairobi specializing in Public Finance & Financial Securities Law, where she is also a Doctoral Fellow and PhD candidate researching the regulation and governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Environmental Social Governance (ESG), and Sustainable Finance. A committed scholar and mentor, she is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Nairobi, and contributes widely to ADR and governance literature.
Contacts:
Email: waihenya@jwmadvocates.com/ jacqueline.waihenya@gmail.com
LinkedIn: FCS Jacqueline Waihenya - Chartered Arbitrator, Chartered Mediator, LLM
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-2068 /
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/author=5516710
