Jessica Mwenje Mayavi
Jessica Mwenje Mayavi is a Kenyan commercial lawyer and partner at MMC Asafo (formerly MMC Africa Law), where she heads the Real Estate and Projects practice. A graduate of the University of Nairobi and the Kenya School of Law, she joined the firm as an intern in 2010, rose through the ranks, and earned partnership in 2019 at just 29.
Over the past decade she has advised on transactions exceeding USD 2 billion, including the structuring and financing of Two Rivers City and Nairobi Railway City—two of East Africa’s largest mixed-use developments. Her portfolio spans project finance, public-private partnerships, and complex land-tenure conversions, making her the go-to counsel for international investors entering Kenya’s property market. In 2024 she steered the first green-bond-funded affordable-housing estate under the government’s Boma Yangu programme, a deal hailed by the Capital Markets Authority as a template for climate-smart urbanisation.
Mayavi is a Certified Public Secretary and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She mentors young advocates through the Law Society of Kenya’s Women in Real Estate forum and lectures part-time on land-use law at Strathmore University. Listed among the “100 Most Influential Young Kenyans” (Law & Governance) in 2019, she now sits on the National Housing Corporation’s advisory board, shaping policy for inclusive, sustainable development.