Save the date
  • TUESDAY
  • 13
  • OCTOBER 2026
  • NAIROBI

The
Executive
Debate

Artificial Intelligence Adoption vs Governance: What Next!
2026 Kenya Edition
By invitation only
A high-level conversation on the future of AI.

What happens when adoption moves faster than governance?

The Executive Debate brings together senior leaders, policymakers, technology voices and decision-makers to examine the choices facing organisations as AI adoption accelerates.

Register your interest →
The premise

The hardest AI decisions are not technical.

They are decisions of capital, risk appetite, accountability and trust — made today, in boardrooms, with uneven information and few trusted spaces for candour.

Capital

At what threshold does AI investment scale?

Risk appetite

What pace of adoption is defensible?

Accountability

Who answers when governance is thin?

The motion

Accelerate adoption — or consolidate governance first?

Accelerate

Move now.

Govern in flight, accept the exposure.

Consolidate

Fix the foundations.

Build governance first, and accept the delay.

The room

Kept deliberately senior, so the conversation stays candid.

Participation is by invitation, and the record of the programme is non-attributed.

01

Board members & non-executive directors

02

Chief executives & executive committee members

03

CTOs, CDOs, CISOs & data protection leaders

The speakers

Voices shaping the conversation.

Dr. Melissa Omino, Executive Director, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information (CIPIT), Strathmore University

Dr. Melissa Omino

Executive Director, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information (CIPIT), Strathmore University

Dr Melissa Omino is the Director of CIPIT at Strathmore University, the leading Eastern African AI Policy Hub and Data Governance Policy Centre. Her research direction is focused on utilizing an African lens and a Human Rights lens. Part of the research conducted under Dr Omino’s leadership involved mapping AI applications in Africa as the initial step in answering the question of what determines African AI and the problems it aims to solve in Africa. She is the co-author of the equitable licensing framework NOODL aimed at ensuring language dataset benefits flow back to the language communities that have preserved and curated indigenous languages. Dr Omino is an intellectual property expert and has served as an Advisory Board member in several Projects that intersect between AI and IP including a National AI Strategy Process, a National Data Governance Policy Process, and leading the IP Advisory to global entities funding AI research in Africa. She also sits on the board of the Creative Commons chairing its Governance and Nominations Committee.

Udistra Dandaraj, ISV Lead, Cassava Technologies

Udistra Dandaraj

ISV Lead, Cassava Technologies

Udistra Dandaraj leads AI, cloud, and technology ecosystem initiatives across Africa for Cassava Technologies.

He works with enterprises, technology partners, investors and high-growth startups to accelerate digital transformation and bring emerging technologies to market. Over the past several years, he has built strategic partnerships across the cloud, AI, venture capital and startup ecosystems, helping organizations move from experimentation to real business outcomes.

His work provides a practical view of how enterprises are approaching AI adoption, where investments are being made, and the challenges leaders face in balancing innovation with governance, risk, and accountability.

Udistra is particularly passionate about the role AI can play in accelerating business growth and economic development across Africa, while ensuring organizations build sustainable foundations for long-term value creation and trust.

Carolyne Gathinji, Partner, McKinsey & Company

Carolyne Gathinji

Partner, McKinsey & Company

Carolyne is a partner in McKinsey’s Nairobi office, where she leads the firm’s financial services work in East Africa. With over ten years of experience serving clients in the sector, Carolyne has worked with banks, donor agencies, telcos, fintechs, and government agencies on financial innovation and inclusion topics.

Deeply passionate about driving change in Africa’s financial institutions, she works closely with leaders of financial services providers to drive sustainable strategic growth, transform their operations, and enhance financial inclusion.

Some of Carolyne’s recent work includes:

  • advising on 14 M&A banking transactions across the continent, developing the deal rationale, sizing synergies, integration planning, and integration management
  • building a merchant payments business in West Africa over a two-year period
  • transforming an investment-related public sector agency across digitization and organization topics
  • conducting a seven-month strategic assessment of a major bank in East Africa, covering all areas of the bank and developing a comprehensive strategy
  • developing and implementing five-year strategies for several leading commercial banks in Africa
  • advising a leading telco-led payments fintech platform across Africa on developing its equity story and driving its next wave of growth

Carolyne began her career as an investment banker at UBS Investment Bank in New York. In 2015, she joined McKinsey in Boston, where she honed her expertise in strategic management. After several years, she returned to Kenya and McKinsey’s Nairobi office, bringing her extensive experience and commitment to driving change in Africa’s financial sector.

Dr. Laila Macharia, Aspen Initiative Nairobi

Dr. Laila Macharia

Aspen Initiative Nairobi

Raised in Kenya, Namibia and Somalia, Dr. Laila Macharia is Founding Director of the Aspen Institute’s Africa Initiative based in Nairobi. An award-winning investor, she is Vice President at Imaginable Futures, the education investment arm of the Omidyar Group, and Vice Chair of Centum, East Africa’s oldest listed investment holding company.

Julius Opio, Chair, ICC Kenya

Julius Opio

Chair, ICC Kenya

Charles Murito, Regional Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Middle East & Africa, Google

Charles Murito

Regional Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Middle East & Africa, Google

Charles Murito is Google’s Regional Director, Government Affairs & Policy, Middle East & Africa. In this capacity, Charles is responsible for overseeing engagement with Governments & Regulators to promote digital transformation through progressive policy, to achieve economic growth. Charles assumed this role after almost six years as Google’s Country Director for Kenya & Interim Country Director for South Africa, where he oversaw in-country revenue growth.

Parallel to his core responsibilities as Country Director, Murito also served as the Diversity and Inclusion lead for EMEA emerging markets, working with the EMEA team to build a more equitable organization in which every employee can thrive.

Prior to Google, Charles helped some of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies define their strategy, grow, and advance their footprint in emerging markets. This included roles at MTV Base, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting, where he served as the Director of Business Development and Strategy. While at Turner, Charles spearheaded the development & launch of an Arabic Cartoon Network channel and conceptualized the Cartoon Network Academy in Abu Dhabi to train a generation of Arabic animators. Charles also serves as an Independent Board Director for Absa Bank Kenya, and previously served as a Co-Chair of the 2025 Digital Taskforce for the B20 and Board Director for CSQuared, formerly a Google portfolio company.

Outside of work, Charles enjoys art, food, and farming.

Njeri Jomo, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Officer, Jubilee Health Insurance Limited

Njeri Jomo

Chief Executive Officer and Principal Officer, Jubilee Health Insurance Limited

Njeri Jomo is the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Officer of Jubilee Health Insurance, Kenya’s leading private health insurer. She is an accomplished executive with more than two decades of experience in financial services and insurance, recognized for driving growth, transformation, and innovation across the industry.

At Jubilee Health, she has led a successful turnaround that strengthened market leadership, expanded customer access, and introduced new models of efficiency through technology, product design, and strategic partnerships. Her leadership has played a pivotal role in repositioning health insurance as a catalyst for both financial protection and improved health outcomes, with strong focus on affordability, sustainability and exceptional customer experience.

Beyond her corporate role, Njeri serves on the boards of the Association of Kenya Insurers, Jubilee Life and Health Insurance Uganda, and Jubilee Health Insurance Tanzania, and is the Vice President of the Kenya Women in Insurance Association (KWIIN). She is a passionate advocate for mentorship, inclusion, and the advancement of women leaders within the insurance and financial services sectors.

Her contributions have earned her numerous accolades, including CEO of the Year (2024 and 2025), CXO of the Year (2025), recognition at the East Africa Women of Excellence Awards, and being named a LinkedIn Top Voice Kenya. Widely regarded as a purpose-driven leader, she combines strategic vision with empathy and execution, and is recognized as a thought leader shaping the future of healthcare financing and leadership in Africa.

Collette Akwana, Partner, CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates LLP

Collette Akwana

Partner, CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates LLP

Collette Akwana is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with 17 years post-bar experience. She is a partner in the firm of CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates LLP the oldest law firm in the country, with 127 years of providing legal service to a wide spectrum of national and international clients.

Collette holds a dual certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals [IAPP] both as a certified privacy professional (CIPP/E) and an Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) and currently heads the firm’s AI and data protection department.

Through the firm, Collette has supported data privacy compliance programmes for both local and multinational organizations and acts as an external Data Protection Officer (DPO) for organizations in the health, hospitality, educational, transport and logistics, financial, real estate, energy and manufacturing sectors.

Collette also advises several Boards in the private sector, on various considerations in the lifecycle of AI systems and governance.

Patrick McSharry, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Patrick McSharry

Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Patrick McSharry is a Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Research Fellow at the Kigali Collaborative Research Centre and Strategic Advisor to the World Bank-funded African Centre of Excellence in Data Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and Senior Member of IEEE, and has advised organisations including the World Bank, OECD, Mastercard Foundation, Google Foundation, ITU and GSMA Foundation. Previously, he was a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at Oxford University and held two Marie Curie Fellowships. His multidisciplinary research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and quantitative approaches to improving decision-making and risk management. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and three books, including Big Data Revolution (2015). He is currently building multidisciplinary partnerships to develop data-driven, sustainable solutions to global challenges.

Moses Kipchirchir, Partner, KPMG East Africa

Moses Kipchirchir

Partner, KPMG East Africa

Moses Kipchirchir is a Partner at KPMG East Africa with over 16 years of experience advising financial institutions, governments, regulators, and development organisations on technology risk, cyber security, data and digital trust. He works with leaders across East Africa on the opportunities and challenges arising from technological change, including the growing use of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies. He is passionate about fostering trust in technology and helping organisations adopt innovation in ways that are secure, responsible, and sustainable.

Bramuel Mwalo, Founder & CEO, Syni.ai

Bramuel Mwalo

Founder & CEO, Syni.ai

Bramuel Mwalo is the Founder and CEO of Syni.ai, an applied AI studio building the governance infrastructure that sits between AI systems and the data they use. He is driven by a simple conviction, that AI is being adopted faster than it is being governed, and that most organisations cannot see what an AI system accessed, cannot control what it is allowed to see, and cannot prove any of it after the fact. Bramuel believes real command of AI starts at the top, with leaders who engage deeply enough to shape how it’s adopted across their organisations. That conviction guides both his work at Syni.ai and how he shows up in conversations with fellow leaders on AI adoption. He holds degrees in Business Administration and Finance, with a specialization in Corporate Innovation, from Stanford University. His work has been recognized through the MIT Solve Fellowship, World Economic Forum UpLink, and Kenya’s Top 40 Under 40.

Soumya Vadlamani, Data Analytics Director, BDO East Africa

Soumya Vadlamani

Data Analytics Director, BDO East Africa

Soumya is a Data Analytics Director at BDO with more than 12 years of experience in data analytics and digital transformation across a wide range of industries. A certified specialist with a Bachelor of Technology degree, she has a strong track record of turning data into strategic insight, strengthening governance, and helping organisations modernise the way they work to accelerate growth.

At BDO, Soumya leads initiatives that help teams get more value from their data, from building internal visualisations and reports to supporting data transformation, analysis, and the rollout of data governance frameworks. She plays a key role in the firm’s digital transformation agenda, aligning analytics and technology initiatives with organisational objectives to uncover growth opportunities, strengthen risk management, and embed evidence-based decision-making across functions.

The programme

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

7:30 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

7:20
Registration
7:30
Networking Breakfast
8:00
Call to Order
8:02
Welcome Remarks

Dr. Laila Macharia, Founding Chair, Aspen Initiative Nairobi
Julius Opio, Chair, ICC Kenya

8:10
Chief Guest Opening Remarks

Mary Kerema, Secretary, Digital Economy and Emerging Technologies, Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy

8:20
The State of Industry Reflection

Every boardroom has a version of the AI story it tells in public, and this panel is here for the other one. Advisory firms that sit inside more enterprise boardrooms than almost anyone, a telecom chief executive on the operating side of these decisions, and a research voice working closely with government and the private sector on AI governance and data policy set the decks and the diplomacy aside. They say what they have actually watched happen this year, where the AI investment paid off, and where good governance quietly became theater.SpeakersMoses Kipchirchir — Partner, Advisory Services, KPMG East Africa
Mugo Kibati — Chief Executive Officer, Telkom Kenya
Soumya Vadlamani — Data Analytics Director, BDO East Africa
Dr. Melissa Omino — Director, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Strathmore UniversityModeratorJulians Amboko — Business Editor, Nation Media Group

9:15
Room Pulse I

A live temperature check of the room, taken from attendees to gauge real-time engagement and overall sentiment.Julians Amboko, Business Editor, Nation Media Group

9:25
Special Remarks

John Walubengo, Senior Data Commissioner, Compliance, Office of Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC)

9:35
Health Break
9:45
Keynote Address

TBC

10:00
Context Framing Presentation

Bramuel Mwalo, Founder & CEO, Syni.ai

10:20
The Executive Debate

Capital is already moving into AI faster than governance can keep pace with it, and boards are making the calls anyway, often with thinner information than the scale of the bet deserves. Somewhere between the pressure to move first and the fear of moving recklessly, every enterprise is quietly drawing a line it hasn’t said out loud, and this is where that line finally gets argued in the open.ModeratorOlive Burrows — News Anchor, Reporter, Citizen TVOpening Commentary ContributorsCollette Akwana — Partner, CMS Daly Inamdar Advocates LLP
Patrick McSharry — Professor, Carnegie Mellon University; Research Fellow, Kigali Collaborative Research Centre (KCRC); Strategic Advisor, African Centre of Excellence in Data Science
Carolyne Gathinji - Partner, McKinsey & Companya
Njeri Jomo — CEO and Principal Officer of Jubilee Health Insurance Kenya
Charles Murito — Regional Director, Sub Saharan Africa, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Google
Udistra Dandaraj — ISV Lead, Cassava Technologies
Fred Afune — Radio and ICT Director, Royal Media Services
Betty Kyalo — AI Policy & Governance Advisor, Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet)

11:45
The Road Ahead

Palesa Gaasenwe, Co-Founder, Syni.ai

11:55
Vote of Thanks

Dr. Laila Macharia, Founding Chair, Aspen Initiative Nairobi

12:00
Programme Adjourns

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST

Registration has now closed.

Registration is now closed, but there’s more to come. Follow this page to stay up to date during and after the programme. There will be no on site registration.