As head of IT at Del Monte Kenya, Kennedy Njenga believes technology leadership begins with people. His approach has been shaped by a conviction that listening matters more than control.
Kennedy Njenga, head of IT, at Del Monte Kenya has always been disciplined. Even outside work, his days follow a rhythm. Almost every evening, without exception, he leaves his house and walks five kilometres around his neighbourhood, taking the walk twice around the block. The time is reserved for fitness and reflection.
Reflection as a leadership habit
During those walks, Kennedy replays conversations, decisions and moments from the day, asking himself what worked, what did not and how he handled people. His reflective discipline has informed his approach to leadership, particularly as his career moved into more complex environments involving risk and scale.
“Over time, that habit has shaped how I lead. Long before heading IT for large organisations, I learned one of the most important leadership lessons: slowing down and listening. I reflect on how I handled situations and what I could have done differently. By the time I finish, I feel refreshed, and when I sit down for dinner, I am done with work,” he says.
Kennedy has spent more than two decades building, integrating and securing complex technology environments, but he does not define his leadership by systems alone. He believes that technology only succeeds when the people around it understand it, trust it and feel included in how it works.
Early in his career, working in frontline IT support roles, Kennedy quickly noticed that even good systems can fail when users feel excluded or overwhelmed. That exposure shaped his view of leadership long before he carried the CIO title. For Kennedy, the most important system any organisation manages is its people.
That conviction has only deepened as technology has become more embedded in everyday work and risk has increased, particularly around cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity is not just about having a firewall or an antivirus system on your computer,” Kennedy says. “Behaviour also affects cyber security operations because it is humans who actually execute the tasks that lead to security risks being exploited. It is a user who clicks on a link or opens an attachment without thinking, and suddenly the whole organisation is exposed.”
Cybersecurity as a human problem
As Kennedy progressed from technical support into infrastructure leadership roles, at companies such as Magadi Soda Company, later Tata Chemicals Magadi, he became increasingly aware of the gap between perceived readiness and actual risk. Many organisations believed they were secure simply because they had invested in tools.
What concerned him was not the lack of technology, but the lack of awareness around it. He observed users who felt confident simply because systems appeared to be running smoothly, without understanding what was happening under the surface.
“You find there is quite a disconnect,” he explains. “People feel very confident about the systems they have in place, but once you start looking under the hood, you realise there are so many issues to do with security and setup that need attention, and users do not know about them.”
This awareness followed him into global roles, including his time at Qatar Petroleum, where he supported integrations across continents. The technical challenge was significant, but what stood out most was how cultural differences and communication styles shaped outcomes.
“When you are dealing with different countries, different time zones and different cultures, you realise very quickly that technology alone will not solve anything,” he says. “You have to make sure people can collaborate effectively, understand each other and trust the systems they are using.”
Today, as head of IT at Del Monte, Kennedy is vocal about reframing cybersecurity as a shared organisational responsibility rather than an IT function. He believes many organisations underestimate how much risk sits with everyday users, particularly senior leaders and teams handling sensitive data.
“It is usually the executives, finance teams and HR teams who are the highest-risk users because of the information they handle,” he says. “But people are often uncomfortable telling senior leaders what not to do, so the risk remains.”
He argues that one-off training sessions create a false sense of security. Attendance may be recorded, but behaviour rarely changes.
Moving beyond tick-box training
“If you do a training in February, by July nobody remembers what was taught,” he says. “People sign attendance sheets and HR ticks a box, but if you ask someone later what they learned, they cannot recall it.”
Instead, Kennedy advocates for structured, continuous training that is tailored to different roles and reinforced regularly through simple reminders.
“There has to be a structured approach,” he explains. “You define the technology, but you also define how people are trained. Executives need one kind of training, finance another, HR another. And then you keep reminding them, even if it is just short emails, so the risk stays at the front of their minds.”
Beyond cybersecurity, Kennedy’s community-first philosophy shapes how he approaches user training more broadly. He has long believed that many employees underuse the tools they already have, not because they lack ability, but because no one has taken time to show them what is possible.
“There is so much more functionality beyond just typing a document or creating a basic spreadsheet,” he says. “If business users are shown how to use these tools properly, it improves their efficiency and confidence.”
For Kennedy, training is not about control or compliance. It is about empowerment. He sees it as a way of reducing frustration and helping people achieve more with less effort.
“When people understand the tools they are using, they produce better results with less stress,” he explains. “That is when technology starts to add real value.”
This mindset has helped him dismantle the perception of IT as an intimidating or distant function. He is deliberate about positioning technology teams as partners rather than gatekeepers.
“We need to close the gap between what users think they know and what they actually need to know,” he says. “That is our responsibility as leaders in IT.”
Building people, not just systems
Kennedy’s sense of community extends beyond his organisation to the future of the profession itself. Mentorship, for him, is not a formal programme but a personal commitment. He regularly invites young professionals, apprentices and trainees to seek his guidance, offering direction rather than rigid instruction. Over time, many of those he has mentored have moved on to new opportunities, a process he views with pride rather than regret.
“When someone leaves because they have grown and found another opportunity, it is bittersweet,” he says. “You lose a good team member, but you are happy for them. I am proud when someone can say they grew because of the time we worked together.”
Rather than seeing talent movement as a loss, Kennedy views it as circulation.
“It is like a game of musical chairs,” he explains. “You give someone to the market, and someone else comes to you with knowledge gained elsewhere. Knowledge keeps moving, and that is healthy for the industry.”
As younger professionals enter the workforce with different expectations, Kennedy believes CIOs must adapt how they lead.
“These younger professionals do not believe in sitting at a desk from eight to five to prove they are working,” he says. “If you give them targets and trust them to deliver, they will work from anywhere and still give you results.”
Kennedy does not focus on systems or certifications as priorities for future CIOs. He believes that leaders often underestimate the personal strain employees bring into the workplace, including stress, responsibilities, and pressures that aren’t always visible. For him, effective leadership today requires awareness beyond performance metrics; it demands understanding the human side of work, connecting with people, and recognising the challenges they carry every day.
“Be human. Listen more. Be empathetic. Someone may say they are fine, but that does not mean they are okay, people come to work carrying a lot. It is no longer just about delivery; you have to connect with people as humans,” Kennedy says.
