Britam Holdings has appointed Celestine Munda, a former Partner at Ernst & Young (EY) Kenya, as Board Chairperson. The decision ends an interim arrangement that began after the death of Kuria Muchiru.
Appointment follows seven months in the interim role
The appointment took effect on 27 October 2026 and remains subject to regulatory approvals, the insurer said in a notice. Munda, an independent director, has led the board since 30 March 2026, when directors named her Interim Chairperson11 days after Muchiru died on 19 March 2026. The board said then that she would hold the role until it announced a substantive appointment.
Muchiru chaired Britam from December 2021. He joined the board in August that year.
Munda spent 30 years in audit, risk and oil and gas
Her LinkedIn profile lists “Over 30 years experience” across professional services and the oil and gas industry. It records seven years in accounting and auditing at a Big 4 firm. In oil and gas, it lists two years in upstream procurement and operations, three years in chemicals finance and administration, and two years in retail project auditing.
The longest block is 17 years at a Big 4 firm on projects in business risk consulting, internal auditing, corporate governance, strategy and operations, organisational reviews and job evaluations, across the public and private sectors.
Her profile states that she held senior management roles at a Big 4 firm, including Africa Risk Advisory Services Leader, East and Central Africa Advisory Services Leader, Global Advisory Council Member, EMEIA Risk Advisory Services Executive Africa Representative, Africa Regional Partner Forum Representative and Consumer Products Leader for Advisory Services.
She served as a Partner at EY in Nairobi from June 2001 to October 2022. Her profile describes her role as sector leader for Consumer Products, Oil and Gas and Diversified Industrials, with responsibility for growth and service delivery in EY’s Advisory Services. Her work covered risk and control improvement, enterprise risk management and corporate governance. Khusoko’s earlier report on her interim appointment also records that she served as Country Managing Partner for EY Kenya.
Beyond EY, she is a former Vice President of the Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa (IIASA). She is also a former Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the Internal Audit Endorsed Programme (IAEP) at the University of Pretoria.
Board seats and qualifications
Munda joined the Britam board in September 2022 as a Non Executive Director. She chaired the Board Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, which oversees financial reporting, risk management and governance.
She has served as a Non Executive Director at TradeMark Africa since September 2022. Since November 2023 she has been a Non Executive Advisory Board Member at Jaguar Petroleum on a contract basis.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting and Business from the University of Nairobi, earned between 1982 and 1985. She completed an Executive MBA at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business from 2021 to 2022. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), trained through Strathmore Business School.
Chair changes over the past decade
Her appointment follows several changes at the top of the board. Muchiru succeeded Mohamed Said Karama, who served as Acting Chairman from February to December 2021 after Walter Andrew Hollas retired. Hollas chaired Britam from August 2017 until January 2021, when he retired on reaching 70. He succeeded Francis Muthaura, the former Head of the Public Service, who served from late 2013 until August 2017. Muthaura replaced J. Nicholas Ashford-Hodges, who resigned in November 2013.
Strategy and results under the new chair
Munda takes the chair as Britam runs its ASCEND 2026 to 2030 strategy, which succeeds the EPIC² transformation programme that ran from 2021 to 2025. The insurer reported a net loss of KSh9.112 billion in 2020. The EastAfrican reported that net profit for the first half of 2026 rose 53.3 percent to KSh2.66 billion from KSh1.28 billion a year earlier.
Britam operates in seven markets: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Mozambique and Malawi. It is also pursuing entry into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Chief Executive Tom Gitogo has said the group aims to close an acquisition. Muchiru framed the growth case in 2025 around low insurance penetration. “We are not yet even scratching the surface,” he said, adding that a 15 per cent penetration target within five years would still be more than 10 times the level in some countries.
Regulatory approval is the last step before the appointment is complete. Munda’s first test as substantive chair is to steer ASCEND 2026 to 2030 and the Congo deal. Read more Britam coverage on Khusoko.
