Dr. Fred Ojiambo, SC, MBS

Email: FOjiambo@kapstrat.com
Position: Senior Partner
Practice Area: Arbitration & Mediation | Banking Insurance & Telecommunications | Employment & Retirement Benefits | Litigation

Dr. Fred Ojiambo is a Kenya advocate. He was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya in 1975. His main area of practice is civil litigation in the following areas: banking, insurance, medical negligence and malpractice issues, land disputes, commercial transactions, international trade, construction and environmental law, judicial review, criminal law, public international law claims, employment, debt collection, criminal law, arbitration and mediation. Dr. Ojiambo mainly handles matters before the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Industrial Court and other specialised Tribunals.

He has also participated in various judicial and other inquiries such as the inquiry into the Goldenberg affair. Dr. Ojiambo has been the Chair of the Law Society of Kenya and Senior Counsel (SC). He has served and continues to serve as director in various organisations and companies including inter alia, Biblica Africa; Quadrant Services Limited, Uzima Foundation, Bata Shoe Company Ltd, Stanbic Bank Ltd, Stanbic Holdings Limited, Solio Ranch Ltd, Windle International Kenya and Africa Geothermal International Ltd. Dr. Ojiambo is also the immediate former Chairman of the Council of Legal Education.

• Advocate – High court of Kenya
• Commissioner for Oaths
• Notary Public

• English
• Swahili

• Successfully represented African Development Bank (ADB) in the Court of Appeal in respect to ADB’s immunity against prosecution pursuant to a signed Treaty and Act.
• Representing the Communication Authority of Kenya, in a dispute regarding the roll out of the digital migration framework in Kenya, in light of the International Telecommunication Union Rules, which require migration within a specific period. The matter has huge implications on the communications sector comprising both civilian and non-civilian communication traffic throughout the country.
• Acting for a petroleum company in which the issue is the right of an unrepresented and absent respondent to lodge an appeal against an arbitral award at the point of enforcement and involves a subject sum of USD 93,720,000.
• Representing a maritime authority in Arbitration proceedings for alleged breach of international and national environmental legislation relating to the collection and management of waste generated by ships and other marine crafts, involving the construction of international treaties and instruments.
• Fred Ojambo SC and Esther Kinyenje represented the Kenya Tea Growers Association in the Court of Appeal in respect of an appeal against a decision by the Employment Court awarding a 30% wage increase. The Court of Appeal delivered a landmark decision reducing the wage increase to 16% and awarded a productivity increase for tea pluckers to 1170 kilograms per month. The Court of Appeal award for productivity is a game changer in the tea industry which has been battling high labour costs impacting on the viability of tea production in the country.
• Defending a prominent female lawyer, in criminal proceedings involving allegations of election fraud. The matter has political overtones and is of significant public interest.
• Representing the co-administrator and beneficiaries of a large estate in protracted proceedings before the probate court, over the deceased’s colossal estate, estimated to be worth billions of Kenya shillings.
• Defending a leading pension fund in a billion shilling claim filed by retired employees for  retirement benefits which were allegedly calculated wrongly.
• Acting for a leading insurance company in a matter regarding the impugned purchase of property allegedly sold by an unauthorized receiver
• Republic v Cholmondeley – Lead counsel. Cause celebre in Kenya; a murder charge against a white Kenyan aristocrat landowner of British ancestry attracting local and international attention.  Apart from its high profile nature, the trial was mired in numerous interlocutory points of substance involving complex and substantive procedural aspects of the law (constitutional rights, admissibility of evidence and disclosure obligations by accused persons the conduct of the trial). The vilification of the accused by the local and international media on grounds irrelevant to the case and evidence, such as race, colonial heritage, wealth, class, local politics, land tenure and ethnicity made the conduct of the case complex and taxing for the advocates who at times even faced personal threats and risks.
• Kenya Revenue Authority v Magadi Soda Co. Large tax claim by the KRA against Magadi Soda Ltd. A vast array of complex issues on tax law dealt with and settled on behalf of Magadi.
• Acted for an overseas contractor on a complex tax dispute covering VAT, Income Tax and Withholding tax.
• Acted pro bono, for victim families in a criminal prosecution against serving police officers accused of having murdered a lawyer, the client and taxi driver. The incident raised national and international outrage.