Michelle Kimonye
Senior Associate | Nairobi
Contact
T: +254 20 503 1600
Overview
Michelle Kimonye is a senior associate in our Nairobi office and a member of the Corporate Department.
Michelle is a competition law specialist with over eight years of competition and consumer protection law experience at the firm. She has been involved in advising a wide range of local and foreign clients on the merger control aspects of their local and international transactions, including: providing advice various African jurisdictions including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania as well as providing advice on merger control from a regional perspective in East Africa and COMESA. During a 3-month secondment to our Cape Town office, she was also involved in providing merger control advice in jurisdictions in the Southern African region including in South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.
Michelle also regularly advises both, local and foreign, clients on anti-competitive business/trade practices in Kenya, COMESA and Tanzania, including issues relating to abuse of dominance, cartel conduct and abuse of buyer power. She has represented and advised clients on dawn raids investigations, settlement proceedings and negotiations, compliance checks, information sharing/clean team protocols, sector investigations and consumer welfare and protection.
Michelle has also been engaged in various legislative reviews, including more recently, the Kenyan Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the CAK’s Competition General Rules, 2019, the CAK’s Joint Venture Guidelines and the EAC Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Draft Guidelines on the Exchange of Competitively Sensitive Information published by the South African Competition Commission.
Having practiced competition and consumer protection law in Africa for the last eight years, Michelle has in-depth and invaluable experience in this specialist field.
Experience
Jurisdictions worked in: Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa
Languages Fluent in: English and Swahili
Michelle has been involved in a number of high-profile merger control matters and investigations in various sectors within the East African region including:
- Acting as competition counsel to Holcim in a public M&A deal relating to the sale of its stake in Bamburi Cement to Amsons Group which was notified to the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acting as competition counsel to the Africa Poultry Development group in relation to the purchase of HMH Kuku Limited, a matter being assessed by the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acting as counsel to a leading pharmaceutical company in relation to a business conduct investigation being undertaken by the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Competition law counsel to KCB Group plc relation to the sale of National Bank of Kenya Limited to Access Bank plc.
- Acted as competition law counsel for the Base Resources group with respect to the ultimate sale of Base Titanium, a mineral sands producer in Kenya, to Energy Fuels Inc.
- Has acted for and continues to act as competition law counsel for Coca Cola Beverages Africa Limited in relation to the consolidation of various bottlers in Kenya. This has involved merger filings to the COMESA Competition Commission and the Competition Authority of Kenya.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Unga Farm Care E.A. with regards to the setting up of joint ventures in Kenya and Uganda with Nutreco International B.V. This involved making a merger filing for the joint venture to the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Allianz SE in relation to its merger with Jubilee Insurance. This involved providing merger control advice and undertaking merger filings to the COMESA Competition Commission, the Fair Competition Commission of Tanzania and the Zanzibar Fair Competition Commission.
- Acted as competition law counsel to London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSE Group) and Refinitiv Holdings Limited (Refinitiv) in relation to the proposed acquisition of control in Refinitiv by LSE Group.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Bain Capital Investors, LLC in relation to the acquisition of indirect sole control of the companies comprising the Kantar Group, which involved merger filings in COMESA, Tanzania and Nigeria.
- Was part of the team that successfully defended a leading FMCG producer in Kenya in relation to an alleged consumer protection violation. She has also undertaken similar consumer protection mandates on behalf of a number of other clients.
- Undertaken and successfully represented a number of clients in respect of alleged violations of the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Kenyan Competition Act including on matters relating to alleged carted conduct.
AREA OF EXPERTISE
Qualifications
Education
- LLB (Upper 2nd class Hons), the University of Nairobi
- LLM (Merit), Cardiff University (with a specialization in Competition Law)
- Postgraduate Diploma from the Kenya School of Law.
Professional Memberships
- Law Society of Kenya.
INSIGHTS
Overview
Michelle Kimonye is a senior associate in our Nairobi office and a member of the Corporate Department.
Michelle is a competition law specialist with over eight years of competition and consumer protection law experience at the firm. She has been involved in advising a wide range of local and foreign clients on the merger control aspects of their local and international transactions, including: providing advice various African jurisdictions including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania as well as providing advice on merger control from a regional perspective in East Africa and COMESA. During a 3-month secondment to our Cape Town office, she was also involved in providing merger control advice in jurisdictions in the Southern African region including in South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.
Michelle also regularly advises both, local and foreign, clients on anti-competitive business/trade practices in Kenya, COMESA and Tanzania, including issues relating to abuse of dominance, cartel conduct and abuse of buyer power. She has represented and advised clients on dawn raids investigations, settlement proceedings and negotiations, compliance checks, information sharing/clean team protocols, sector investigations and consumer welfare and protection.
Michelle has also been engaged in various legislative reviews, including more recently, the Kenyan Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the CAK’s Competition General Rules, 2019, the CAK’s Joint Venture Guidelines and the EAC Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Draft Guidelines on the Exchange of Competitively Sensitive Information published by the South African Competition Commission.
Having practiced competition and consumer protection law in Africa for the last eight years, Michelle has in-depth and invaluable experience in this specialist field.
Experience
Jurisdictions worked in: Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa
Languages Fluent in: English and Swahili
Michelle has been involved in a number of high-profile merger control matters and investigations in various sectors within the East African region including:
- Acting as competition counsel to Holcim in a public M&A deal relating to the sale of its stake in Bamburi Cement to Amsons Group which was notified to the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acting as competition counsel to the Africa Poultry Development group in relation to the purchase of HMH Kuku Limited, a matter being assessed by the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acting as counsel to a leading pharmaceutical company in relation to a business conduct investigation being undertaken by the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Competition law counsel to KCB Group plc relation to the sale of National Bank of Kenya Limited to Access Bank plc.
- Acted as competition law counsel for the Base Resources group with respect to the ultimate sale of Base Titanium, a mineral sands producer in Kenya, to Energy Fuels Inc.
- Has acted for and continues to act as competition law counsel for Coca Cola Beverages Africa Limited in relation to the consolidation of various bottlers in Kenya. This has involved merger filings to the COMESA Competition Commission and the Competition Authority of Kenya.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Unga Farm Care E.A. with regards to the setting up of joint ventures in Kenya and Uganda with Nutreco International B.V. This involved making a merger filing for the joint venture to the COMESA Competition Commission.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Allianz SE in relation to its merger with Jubilee Insurance. This involved providing merger control advice and undertaking merger filings to the COMESA Competition Commission, the Fair Competition Commission of Tanzania and the Zanzibar Fair Competition Commission.
- Acted as competition law counsel to London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSE Group) and Refinitiv Holdings Limited (Refinitiv) in relation to the proposed acquisition of control in Refinitiv by LSE Group.
- Acted as competition law counsel to Bain Capital Investors, LLC in relation to the acquisition of indirect sole control of the companies comprising the Kantar Group, which involved merger filings in COMESA, Tanzania and Nigeria.
- Was part of the team that successfully defended a leading FMCG producer in Kenya in relation to an alleged consumer protection violation. She has also undertaken similar consumer protection mandates on behalf of a number of other clients.
- Undertaken and successfully represented a number of clients in respect of alleged violations of the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Kenyan Competition Act including on matters relating to alleged carted conduct.
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