On 17 September 2026, the High Court handed down a judgment that will shape how Kenya structures public-private partnerships (PPPs) for years to come. In the petition brought by the Katiba Institute, Justice Nyaundi declared sections 59, 60 and 72(1) of the Public Private Partnerships Act, 2021 unconstitutional to the extent they allow PPP projects that create government expenditure, guarantees, public debt or other public liability to proceed without parliamentary approval. Parliament need not approve the project itself, but it must approve the spending and commitments that come with it. The hard question is, with Kenya increasingly relying on private capital to build infrastructure, what message does the ruling send to the investors, lenders and project sponsors that the country depends on? The court rejected the proposition that structuring a transaction as a "PPP" can, by itself, take it outside Parliament's oversight of public expenditure. The test is whether the arrangement, in substance, exposes the national government to spending, borrowing, a guarantee or other public liability. If so, the court held that parliamentary approval is constitutionally required, regardless of the structure adopted for the transaction.
Our finance and projects lawyers advise on all aspects of financing. We share knowledge and skills in deals involving lending and borrowing, debt securities, derivatives, funds, portfolios as well as energy, infrastructure, transport matters and other projects.
IKM’s Finance practice, headed by Anne Kinyanjui, has vast experience and industry insight in the specialist areas of finance, enabling us to advise clients from diverse business sectors. Our lawyers act for over 20 commercial banks, a number of which are the top-tier financial institutions in Kenya.
IKM’s Projects practice, headed by Beatrice Nyabira, has substantial experience across a diverse band of undertakings that include public-private partnerships (PPPs), energy (geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar and coal), and social infrastructure (health, housing and transport). Our knowledge base from working with clients across the public and private sectors means that we have a comprehensive understanding of each of the stakeholder’s concerns and are able to structure transactions in a manner that specifically addresses their needs.
Experience includes:
- Developing the procurement framework, project structure and documents for the Affordable Housing Programme (AHP) rolled out by the Government of Kenya. We have subsequently acted for developers of over 5,000 affordable housing units under the Programme.
- Advising KenGen on the set up, structure, operationalization and onboarding of investors into the pioneer world-class Green Energy (Industrial) Park in a special economic zone in Kenya, with access to 100% renewable energy, logistics infrastructure, and transport networks.
- Inventing a novel solution and structure in connection with the financing and development of County Government headquarters and ancillary facilities by Kenya’s largest pension fund. Our solution entailed creating a charge against the County Revenue Fund, and ring-fencing the payments for the Project.
- Advising the Government in connection with several health care PPPs including: (i) Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital - College of Health Sciences Project; (ii) Pwani University Teaching and Referral Hospital Project; (iii) The Managed Equipment Services Project across the 47 Counties in Kenya; (iv) Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital Cancer Care Center Project; and (v) a primary healthcare PPP proposed to be piloted in Makueni County before being scaled up to all the 47 Counties in Kenya.
- Acting for lenders, developers and sponsors on renewable energy projects across various technologies including solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. Examples of some of our projects that have reached financial close include: (i) a 40 MW Solar Power Project in Malindi County and three (3) others of 40MW each in Uasin Gishu; (ii) a 100 MW Wind Energy Power Project in Kajiado County; (iii) four (4) run-of-river hydro-electric power generation projects; and (iv) three (3) large biomass power projects in East Africa.
- Advising on various infrastructure projects including:(i) the proposed Second Nyali Bridge PPP Project; (ii) roads under the Roads Annuity PPP Programme; and (iii) a port concession.
- Ranked Band 1 in Projects & Energy (Chambers & Partners 2025)
- Ranked Band 1 in Banking & Finance (Chambers & Partners, 2019-2025)
- Ranked Tier 1 in Banking, Finance and Capital Markets (The Legal 500, 2019 - 2024)
- Ranked Tier 1 in Privatisation & Projects (The Legal 500, 2019-2024)
- Ranked Tier 1 in Finance & Corporate (IFLR1000, 2019-2023)
- Ranked in Projects Development (IFLR1000, 2018-2024)
- DLA Piper Africa, Kenya (IKM Advocates) and DLA Piper awarded “Transportation and Infrastructure Team of the Year” (African Legal Awards, 2016)
Less than 10 days into 2026, there were two reports of collapsed buildings in Nairobi. The collapse of a high rise building in South C on January 2 cast a harsh spotlight on Kenya’s construction oversight failures. Barely a week after the South C accident, two workers died and seven others were injured when a building under construction collapsed in Karen. Just over a month later, on February 11, 2026, it was reported that the wall of a construction site in Nairobi’s CBD had collapsed. On March 18, 2026, two separate construction incidents in Westlands, Nairobi and Kericho left at least two people dead and several others injured. Although Kenya has established institutions, licensing requirements, inspection mandates, and professional accountability mechanisms intended to safeguard public safety, the persistence of building collapses in Kenya underscores the need to examine not only legal and regulatory requirements, but also the practical question of enforcement and accountability.
Could carbon projects be like that puffy 'mandazi' that you bite into and discover that it was a pocket of air? This is arguably the case, for some communities in Kenya whose high hopes for carbon credits have been dashed.
Kenya is no stranger to carbon trading. In fact, the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project Voluntary Registry Offsets database ranked Kenya as the second-largest issuer of voluntary carbon market credits in Africa in 2022, trailing the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Globally, climate change is recognized as one of the most serious threats to humanity. The Paris Agreement, which was a global response to climate change, recognizes the need for adequate funds to finance the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate-resilient development. Dubbed ‘transition finance’, the funding needed for the transition to a low-carbon sustainable future is fundamental to the fight against climate change.