Kenya Airways could simply argue that their safety standards are higher than anyone else's. I fear that from the compensation aspect, that's rather a trump card.
It used to be the case that many of the airline's pilots were trained in South Africa. That doesn't seem an entirely satisfactory training ground for European winter flight operations. So perhaps Kenya Airways errs on the side of caution in its Ops Manual? Who knows, that's all idle conjecture. I wish you luck in your claim success.