About Uwazi Consulting
Uwazi Consulting is an accounting firm in Nairobi working with small and medium-sized businesses across Kenya: accounting, bookkeeping, tax consultancy, auditing and payroll. Clients take one service, or hand over the finance function entirely.
Most have outgrown a spreadsheet and a part-time bookkeeper but are not yet large enough to employ a finance team. It is an awkward stage: the obligations are already those of a serious company, while the capacity to meet them is whatever the owner can find time for.
Uwazi is Kiswahili for openness. It is the standard we hold ourselves to on the part of the job clients rarely get: being able to look at your own figures, ask why a number is what it is, and receive an answer you can follow.
Who We Are
The practice rests on more than ten years of accounting work in Kenya — company accounts, VAT and PAYE returns, monthly payroll, audit files and KRA correspondence — done for owner-managed businesses rather than listed groups.
The difference shows in what we are good at. We know what a trading company's records look like after two years without a bookkeeper, which VAT and PAYE errors attract the most expensive penalties, and how long it takes to reconcile a year of bank transactions before a return can honestly be filed.
Our clients are mainly limited companies and sole proprietorships, from a handful of employees to a few dozen, in trading, services and professional practice. Some have an accounts assistant we support; others send us everything and get back clean books, filed returns and payslips that reach staff on time.
Our Professional Expertise
Our work is carried out by accountants who are members of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK). Membership is not a decoration: it carries a code of ethics covering confidentiality, objectivity and competence, and a continuing professional development requirement that keeps members current as the law changes — which, in tax, is most years.
The ground that covers in practice:
- Financial statements prepared under IFRS for SMEs and the reporting requirements of the Companies Act 2015
- Corporation tax, VAT, PAYE and withholding tax — computation, preparation and filing through iTax
- Payroll with statutory deductions correctly applied: PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Affordable Housing Levy
- Audit engagements conducted in line with International Standards on Auditing. Statutory audit sign-off in Kenya is restricted to holders of an ICPAK practising certificate, and ours are signed under one
- Bookkeeping and management accounts for businesses that need figures monthly, not once a year at the auditor's request
We are equally clear about where our remit ends. Uwazi Consulting is not a registered KRA tax agent, so we do not represent clients before the Authority in that capacity. We prepare the computations, the supporting records and the written response behind a KRA query, and where a matter needs a registered agent or an advocate, we say so when we see it.
How We Work With Clients
Scope agreed in writing first. A proposal sets out the services, who does what, the deadlines and the fee. Nothing starts, and nothing is invoiced, until you have agreed it.
One named contact. You deal with a person who knows your file and your business, not whoever picks up the phone. That person is named in the engagement letter.
Confidentiality as a practice, not a paragraph. Your records are seen only by the staff assigned to your engagement. We sign a non-disclosure agreement where you want one, and we do not discuss one client's affairs with another.
Independence kept intact. If we keep your books, we will not also sign your audit. Separating those roles is what gives an audit its value to a bank or an investor.
Deadlines ahead of time, not apologies after. You hear from us before a filing date, with what we still need. Late-filing penalties are avoidable, and avoiding them is part of what you pay for.
| Field | Needed for each practitioner |
|---|---|
| Full name | As it appears on the ICPAK register |
| Role | Managing Partner, Audit Manager, Payroll Lead, and so on |
| Qualification | CPA(K), ACCA, degree if relevant |
| ICPAK membership number | Published or withheld — your call, but published is stronger |
| Responsibilities | The services and client work this person actually leads |
| Background | Years in practice, previous firms or industry roles |
| Photograph | Plain background, consistent crop across the team |
Work With Uwazi Consulting
Most clients arrive at a particular moment: a backlog of records, a return already late, a bank asking for audited accounts, or a payroll quietly getting the deductions wrong. Any of those is a reasonable place to start.
Read about each service — accounting, bookkeeping, tax consultancy, auditing and payroll — or tell us what the problem is and we will tell you which of them you need.