Kenya’s corporate governance circle added two familiar names to its ranks this week. Catherine Musakali joined the board of Kenya Airways as an Independent Non Executive Director, while Mary Wangari Wamae stepped onto the board of Centum Investment Company Plc in the same capacity.
Both appointments extend careers built on decades of legal and strategic work inside some of the country’s most consequential institutions.
Catherine Musakali brings governance expertise to Kenya Airways
Musakali is no stranger to the airline. She previously served as its Company Secretary, a role that placed her at the center of the carrier’s legal and compliance functions for years. Her new position as an Independent Non Executive Director marks a shift from operational oversight to strategic governance, at a moment when the national carrier continues working through a broader financial recovery.
Outside the airline, Musakali runs Dorion Associates LLP, a consultancy she founded to advise companies on legal, regulatory and governance matters. She also chairs the Women on Boards Network, an organization she co founded to help more women reach board level roles across Kenya, and she previously served as a director at KASNEB. She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Nairobi, with a focus on commercial law and human rights.
In her own words, she describes herself as an analytical, hardworking lawyer with a strong drive to deliver results for clients, qualities that have shaped a career spent building governance frameworks rather than simply following them.
Mary Wamae joins Centum’s board
Centum announced Wamae’s appointment on 31 July 2026, filling a casual vacancy created on its board. The Nairobi Securities Exchange listed investment firm said the move, confirmed by Group CEO James Mworia, would strengthen its governance and add depth to its strategic oversight.
Wamae spent twenty years at Equity Group Holdings, rising from Company Secretary and Director of Strategy to Group Executive Director overseeing subsidiary operations across six countries. She retired from the bank in June 2024 after helping steer its transformation from a building society into a regional financial services group spanning Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her work there touched capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, and governance reform across multiple jurisdictions.
She now leads TVG Consulting and Leadership Group, a firm she founded to focus on strategy facilitation, executive coaching and leadership development. She also hosts The Executive Table, a platform built for peer learning among executives and entrepreneurs. Her academic record includes an LLB from the University of Nairobi, a master’s degree in Leadership, Innovation and Change from York St John University, and executive programs completed at Harvard Business School, the Wharton School and IESE Business School.
Reflecting on her career, Wamae said she feels grateful for the chance “to lead, to learn, to serve and perhaps most importantly, to invest in people.” She has come to see leadership less as authority and more as stewardship, describing it as “the privilege of seeing potential before it is fully realized” and the work of leaving people “more confident, more capable and more prepared” than when she first met them. Of everything she has done, she said walking alongside leaders at different stages of their careers has brought her the greatest sense of fulfillment.
That same instinct now carries into her new role at Centum, where her focus shifts from running a banking group to shaping strategy from the boardroom.
Together, these appointments reflect a broader pattern in Kenyan corporate governance: institutions increasingly turning to leaders who have already spent decades inside the systems they are now being asked to oversee from the boardroom.
