Josephine Wawira has been appointed Chief Communications Officer at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), taking the alliance’s top communications post after six and a half years with the organisation.
Wawira moves into the C suite role from her position as Head of Corporate Communications, a post she has held since April 2024. Her promotion caps a steady climb through KEPSA’s communications ranks that began in April 2020, when she joined as a Communications Officer under the Sustainable Inclusive Business Program, a partnership between KEPSA and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya.
“Three days to my birthday, and I find myself reflecting, and celebrating not just another year of life, but a remarkable chapter in my career,” Wawira said in a statement announcing the appointment. She described starting six years ago as a one person communications function that has since grown into a strategic team of more than ten professionals.
Wawira credited the promotion to sustained effort rather than a smooth run.
“The journey to the C Suite has been nothing short of remarkable,” she said, adding that it was built on “hard work, dedication, consistency, showing up even when it was difficult, unlearning and relearning, taking risks, mentorship, resilience, and, yes, a few tears along the way.”
Career built across communications and public relations
Before KEPSA, Wawira spent three and a half years as Communications Lead at the Kenya Plastics Pact, where she wrote the organisation’s first communications plan and helped position it as Africa’s second plastics pact after South Africa’s.
Earlier still, she held regional and country level roles at Jumia Group, including Regional Public Relations and Communications Manager overseeing PR teams across twelve African countries, and Country Communications Manager for Jumia Travel in Kenya. She started her media career as a broadcast journalist at Goodnews Broadcasting System between 2011 and 2015.
Alongside her KEPSA role, Wawira serves on the board of UCESCO Africa, a charity supporting vulnerable women and children, and co-founded Growth Culture, a strategic advisory firm, in 2021.
Academic background spans communications and environmental governance
Wawira holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from United States International University Africa, with a minor in journalism, public relations and communications. She later earned an Advanced Fellowship in Environmental Governance at the Local Level from Aarhus University in Denmark under the Danida Fellowship Program, and completed a High Performance Program in Communication for Development at USIU Africa, focused on climate change. Wawira is currently enrolled in an entrepreneurship and communications program at the European Business Institute of Luxembourg, and began her career with a broadcast journalism certificate from the Korean Broadcasting Academy.
She describes herself as a communications specialist with fifteen years of professional experience, including work in nature conservation, and says she aims to demonstrate circular economy best practices that encourage other businesses to adopt sustainable models.
In her statement, Wawira thanked family, friends, mentors and colleagues for their support, and pointed to Colossians 3:23 as a guiding principle through the transition.
“As I step into this new role, I do so with gratitude for how far I’ve come, humility for what the journey has taught me, and excitement for what lies ahead,” she said.
