On the night of September 5, a fire broke out at Athi River’s Katani Villas, bringing down multi-million shillings houses—an incident a typical underwriter might have noted with professional curiosity, pondering what it would mean for insurance and reinsurance claims in the market.
But as orange flames lit up the Athi River skies, a different blaze was already smouldering at the heart of Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re)—a boardroom inferno that gave Managing Director Hillary Wachinga little or no chance to ponder what the Katani blaze might mean for claims.
For Dr Wachinga, an avid golfer and a poet on romance, war and nature, the week must have presented all these feelings at once as the board suspended him alongside the human resource manager Sally Waigumo.
At the centre of the boardroom drama that culminated in a top leadership power struggle was the managing director-backed skills-fit process aimed at streamlining operations at the reinsurer that is 60 percent owned by the government.
And just like that, Dr Wachinga was handed a 21-day suspension. Dr Wachinga, a part-time lecturer at Strathmore Business School became Kenya Re managing director in March 2023, with the board hailing him as a “multiskilled strategic thinker” and a “flexible and adaptable corporate leader.”
Even in the middle of the storm, Dr Wachinga, who grew up in catholic church serving as an altar boy for years, maintained a calm demeanour, as he kept up with his spiritual routine.
“Your call has come in when I am almost at the door of the church. I am going for the evening mass and won’t be available for calls, at least for 45 minutes,” he said when Business Daily reached out for comment a day after the suspension.
In his previous interview, he had told Business Daily that his “most peaceful and happiest” time is when he is seated alone in a chapel or taking his walks. For him, walks are moments for reflection, planning and even executing—he once designed a risk management software when walking and even gets the best rhymes for his poems in the same moments. One of his poetry books is titled ‘Rhythms of the Aberdares.’
In the same interview, Dr Wachinga had opened up about his obsession with the art of perfection and the personal struggles with understanding that people are packaged with limitations and they may fall short at times.
“I am working hard not to be a perfectionist. I used to be the kind of person who would make you repeat something 10 times because I demanded perfection —not just from others, but from myself as well,” he said in a February 2025 interview.
“I've had to lower my expectations for many people and accept that everyone has their own limitations. I'm fighting against being rigid, but it's a struggle. Part of this process involves developing my emotional intelligence.”
He said he struggles with finding patience when he encounters “slow people.” His love for perfectionism did not start at Kenya Re.
He started his career at Deloitte where he was an audit associate. He then crossed over into banking, becoming an audit, risk and compliance manager at Sidian and then into insurance after Madison Group tapped him as the group internal audit manager.
Dr Wachinga would later land at Kenya Re in 2012, becoming the head of risk and compliance. In 2018, Kenya Re promoted him to become the group head of internal audit and later on growing to become the group head of risk and compliance.
He was credited with the creation of a credit control committee and putting in place debt management measures that saw the reinsurer increase collections from Sh1.1 billion in 2013 to Sh8.4 billion in 2021.
Dr Wachinga’s star shone higher, with the board appointing him as the managing director in March 2023 following the exit of former managing director Jadiah Mwaraniah.
The board hailed Dr Wachinga as a “multiskilled strategic thinker with over 17 years of proven work experience in risk management, compliance and auditing – 16 of which have been at management level.”
“Dr Wachinga is a flexible and adaptable corporate leader with demonstrable success in strategic planning and implementation, project management, financial management, auditing and risk management,” said the board when it announced Dr Wachinga’s appointment.
He holds a doctorate in Business Administration, Masters in Business Administration and undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science—all from the University of Nairobi. He is also a certified public accountant, certified information systems manager, certified information systems auditor, certified enterprise risk manager and a certified compliance analyst.
Dr Wachinga juggles many things at once, because, as he said earlier, his ideal life is busy. “I pray that on the last day of my life in this world, I will be busy, useful and productive,” he said.
In the financial year ended December 2023, he led Kenya Re in a 41.5 percent growth in net profit to Sh4.97 billion that saw shareholders’ dividend per share raised 50 percent to Sh0.30 amounting to Sh839.94 million plus bonus shares of one for each share already held.
Last year, the profit retreated by 10.6 percent to Sh4.44 billion mainly on foreign exchange losses, even as the reinsurance service result—reinsurance revenue less service expenses—grew 4.4 times to Sh2.95 billion. The dividend distribution was maintained.
