BACKGROUND
Elly is a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution and Tax practices. His expertise focuses on direct and indirect tax, commercial disputes, domestic and international arbitration, employment, regional integration and property matters.
Prior to joining the firm, Elly accumulated over 6 years’ experience providing professional services in dispute resolution and tax while working for a top-tier African law firm and a leading Big 4 accounting firm.
He has been involved in a number of notable matters including successfully acting for Google Kenya Limited in landmark tax disputes before the High Court of Kenya involving over USD 12 million in Value Added Taxes arising from exported services.
Elly holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nairobi and a Post-graduate Diploma in Law from Kenya School of Law. He is also a Registered Tax Agent (Kenya) and Certified Public Accountant (Kenya), Section 4.
EXPERIENCE
- Part of the team acting for an international school before the Kenyan Court of Appeal on a dispute on taxation of benefits provided to employees.
- Successfully representing Kioo Limited against the Government of Kenya in a dispute before the East African Court of Justice. Successfully challenged amendments to the Excise Duty Act, 2015 to introduce excise duty on glass imports from the EAC contrary to Kenya’s regional integration and EAC treaty obligations.
- Acting for the Kenya Bankers Association before the Supreme Court of Kenya in a landmark tax dispute on payment of withholding taxes on interchange fees and transaction fees arising from credit and debit card transaction.
- Successfully acting for Google Kenya Limited in landmark tax disputes before the High Court of Kenya involving over USD 12 million in Value Added Taxes arising from exported services.
- Part of the team that successfully acted for Catalyst Principal Partners in post-merger London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) arbitration proceedings concerning breach of warranties and misrepresentation arising from falsification of critical financial documents provided during due diligence. Subsequently represented the client in recognition and enforcement proceedings before the High Court of Kenya and Court of Appeal to enforce the arbitral award of over USD 17.3 million in damages.
Acting for Heineken Group, a Dutch brewing company, at the Kenyan Court of Appeal in connection with the disputed termination of distribution agreements in East Africa as well as assisting local counsel in related cross-border litigation before the High Court of Uganda and the Tanzanian Court of Appeal.
- Acting for Bank of Baroda (K) in employment disputes before the Labour Court and the Court of Appeal challenging the retirement age of its employees as agreed in Collective Bargaining Agreement.