Kere-Avocats was founded in 1992 by Barthelemy KERE, Past President of the Bar Association. The firm is located in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (West Africa). Building on the expertise of its 4 lawyers, 1 intern lawyer and 5 jurists, the firm is able to serve its diverse client base. The Firm is recognized nationally as well as internationally for the excellence of its services and is considered a leader in the legal profession with its practice ranging from commercial, mining, energy, telecommunication insurance, banking, environment, land law, financing, employment and labour laws.

Our lawyers work frequently together on complex litigation files and collaborate regularly with eminent American, Canadian and European legal firms on cross-border transactions.

Barthelemy KERE was born on August 24, 1958. He got married with Maria in 1984. Three children were born of this union. After the end of his law studies at Bordeaux (France) on June 1986, he returned to Burkina Faso and trained as a lawyer from 1988 to 1992; during this period, he worked on several files including those of electoral disputes in several elections. He created the law firm “KERE – Avocats” in January 1993, working on consulting and disputes management in several matters of Law (Political, elections, business corporations, mining …).

In 2003, he is elected President of the Burkina Faso lawyers Bar Association for a three-year term. During this term, he put in place a modern administrative organisation of the Bar ; he managed the first establishment of the Caisse Autonome des Règlements Pécuniaires des Avocats (CARPA), an important institution whose mission is to enforce credibility and transparency in the management of funds held by lawyers while exercising their legal mission on Law.

In September 2006, Barthelemy KERE was appointed as Civil society branch member of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC/CENI) of Burkina Faso; he was involved on organizing and supervising municipal, legislative and presidential elections from 2005 to 2010; he also took part in several electoral monitoring missions outside of his country, managed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a regional group of fifteen West African countries, whose mission is to promote economic integration and peacekeeping across the region and also by International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF), an Organisation of all the states sharing French language.

In August 2011, he was elected as President of this Commission. He held the management of over two thousand and five hundred decentralized members and 50 agents as technical and administrative staff. In 2012, he implemented the first biometric voters list in Burkina Faso. This important tool allowed the INEC to organize elections that have had the highest rate of participation (75%) in the electoral history of Burkina Faso. Under his leadership, the electoral commission developed an unprecedented technical ability, professionalism and neutrality. Burkina Faso’s electoral and political actors find in him an available interlocutor who has reliable methodologies to get consensus between adverse political positions.

As president of the INEC/CENI, Barthelemy KERE firmly defended the integrity of the biometric voters’ register and the transparency of the electoral process in order to hold free and fair elections. In November 2015 the electoral process was successfully managed and election results were published the immediate day after the election.  For these elections, the results were accepted by all actors of the electoral process, validated by the Courts in charge of the judicial controls, and approved by national and international electoral observers.

Over the years, M. Barthelemy KERE undertook missions abroad for the observation of elections and for the exchange of experiences in electoral management. He took part in meetings organized by the ECOWAS, La Francophonie and the World Association of Electoral Management Bodies (A-WEB), in relations to electoral management.

He also participated in peacekeeping missions in several countries Bissau Guinea, Mali, Comoro, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar where he spoke to governments, Civil society members and religious leaders, to allow and encourage institutional dialogue for peace promotion in the countries.

Theses experiences accumulated, his skills in inter-religious dialogue, his reputation of honesty and integrity have made him a major actor in the fields of law implementation, business law, governance, public administration and electoral management. He is usually described as an effective, competent and credible expert in all these sectors and leader capable to manage great challenges. He has received several honorary distinctions both in his country and abroad, in recognition of his professional merit.