CHARLES THIONGO

CHARLES THIONGO

Charles holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) Degree from The University of Nairobi where he graduated with Honours at Second Class, Upper Division. Charles also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and is a practicing Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) Degree from The University of Nairobi. He undertook his pupilage with the firm of Capital Law Group one of the leading firms in the area of corper ate/commercial law.

Charles has also worked as the Head Internal Legal Department at Ainushamsi Energy Limited between 2015 to 2019. He handled all the company’s legal matters and inter faced with retained company’s advocates to handle all the company’s legal matters. He was specifically in charge of;

• Drafting, negotiation, execution and registration of all the company’s service station leases

• Liaising with the company’s external advocates in the preparation and execution of all the company’s contracts and commercial agreements

• Negotiation and registration of chattels for movable property and charges discharges for fixed property

• Liaising with the external advocates in making the company’s annual returns with the Registrar of Companies and offering advice on regulatory compliance

• Preparing and executing tenancy agreements for the leasing of the various company’s facilities

• Registering the company’s intellectual property with the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI)

Charles has been working in the energy sector and particularly the oil and gas sub-sector for the past 10 years. He is well versed with legislation and regulations relating to the integrated oil sector encompassing the upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum operations. His experience straddles oil exploration and production, trading and shipping and supply, distribution and retail of petroleum products. He has also specialized in the area of environment law and is on course to certification as a lead expert in this branch of law.

Charles has also established himself in the area of alternative dispute resolution and is undertaking continuous training in this area covering arbitration, mediation, negotiations and conciliation. These mechanisms are highly favoured in Kenya under the new constitutional dispensation to offer an alternative to litigation as a more expeditious, issue-based ad non-adversarial means of resolving disputes between parties.

Charles has also contributed to the development of law and jurisprudence in the country. He has researched widely in a variety of fields and his LL.B undergraduate research paper titled ‘Formulation of a Regulatory Framework on the Administration of the Right to Bail and Bond pursuant to Article 49 (h) of the Constitution’ was one of the reference materials used by the Judiciary in the formulation of the Bail and Bond Policy Guidelines in 2015. These guidelines have been instrumental in offering greater clarity in granting of bail and bond to accused persons brought before courts of law. In his LL.M Thesis Charles undertook a comprehensive researched on the contemporary issue of sharing of oil and gas benefits in Kenya and sort to forestall the proverbial “resource course” by offering practical propositions gleaned from the world’s best practices.