Diana Sawe Tanui

Diana Sawe Tanui has spent nearly two decades proving that sharp legal insight can steer entire industries toward integrity. The Kenyan attorney, now Corporation Secretary and Director of Legal Services at the Insurance Regulatory Authority, joined the watchdog as its youngest senior manager and quickly modernized its compliance playbook, rolling out digital filing portals that cut licensing turnaround times by half and embedding alternative-dispute mechanisms that siphon thousands of cases from Kenya’s clogged courts. A Fellow of both the Institute of Certified Secretaries and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Tanui broke another ceiling by chairing ICS, only the third woman to hold the gavel in the body’s 50-year history.

Her governance footprint stretches across the Law Society of Kenya and the Institute of Directors Kenya, where she mentors boards on ESG reporting and whistle-blower protection. Honors followed, including a spot on Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 Women list, yet Tanui credits “Integrity, excellence, service, progressiveness” as her real résumé. Next on her docket: championing a nationwide sandbox for insurtech startups, crafting arbitration rules tailored to digital assets, and grooming a new cohort of corporate-secretary fellows. In an era of heightened regulatory scrutiny, she is positioning Kenya’s insurance sector and its emerging innovators to thrive on transparency rather than fear it.