Partner
Bruno Walela Situma is a Partner at CS Advocates LLP and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He is also a Certified Public Secretary (K) and a certified mediator. He leads the firm’s commercial litigation and dispute resolution practice, and advises on governance, banking and securities, and company secretarial matters.
Commercial litigation in Kenya rarely turns on the hearing alone. It begins with the contract, the correspondence and the limitation position, and continues through pleadings, evidence, case management and, where the parties choose it, mediation or arbitration. His practice follows that sequence: assessing the strength and timing of a claim, setting strategy, drafting pleadings and applications, preparing witnesses and evidence, negotiating settlement, and enforcing a judgment or award once it is obtained. His litigation work covers commercial, insurance, recovery and enforcement disputes.
A dispute is assessed before it is filed: the legal basis, the evidence, the limitation position and the client’s commercial objective all bear on the route chosen. Litigation, arbitration and mediation each carry different costs, timetables and confidentiality consequences, and the choice should follow the contract and the objective rather than habit. Enforcement is planned from the start, not left to the end.
His governance work includes audits and advisory aligned to the MWONGOZO Code and recognised governance standards (MWONGOZO / CGJK), board support, and remediation planning. In banking and securities he advises on facility documentation, security perfection and enforcement, including the movable property security regime under the Movable Property Security Rights Act 2017. His company secretarial practice covers statutory registers, filings and board support under the Companies Act 2015. These areas meet in practice: a governance failure often becomes a dispute, and a financing default often ends in enforcement.
He also supports negotiated and private dispute resolution as a certified mediator, including settlement discussions conducted on a confidential basis. On cs.legal he is the recorded named reviewer for the firm’s guides to judicial review time limits, contract limitation periods, arbitration versus litigation, insurance claim repudiation and movable property security. The site’s editorial policy explains how articles are researched, attributed and reviewed.
CS Advocates LLP was formed in 2021 through the merger of Charles & Co Advocates and Situma and Associates Advocates. Bruno works with Charles Muriu Mathenge to keep matters handled by an advocate: the partner who advises a client stays on the file, fees are explained before work begins, and strategy is set out in plain language rather than legal jargon. The firm’s clients include businesses, investors, institutions and private clients, and instructions are handled in English, the firm’s declared language of business.
Read the full profile on the About page, email [email protected], or book a confidential consultation. Enquiries about the firm’s litigation, governance and banking work are welcome.