As a market regulator, CMA needs to up the game.

Over the last two years, the conduct of Capital Markets Authority has raised eyebrows to investors in the stock market. Its errors of commission and omission have resulted in systematic loss of billions of shillings.
Last year, Safaricom Ltd floated its share through Intial Public Offer (IPO).In an unprecedented move, investors over subscribed shares to the tune of about 200%. Once those shares started trading in the Nairobi Stock Exchange, they plummeted below their offer price. Worse still, a substantial of investors had borrowed from the bank to invest in what they thought was blue-chip investment.
Despite the market analysts voicing their pessimism, Cooperative Bank too offered their shares at Kshs.9.50.Although the shares were under subscribed (at 80%), the damage was still done to the already grappling stock market.
A few investment banks and stockbrokers faced liquidity problems early last yet they were given clean bill of health to trade. It wasn’t surprising that the likes of Nyaga Stockbrokers and Francis Thuo and Partners were placed under statutory management while Discount Securities Ltd nearly slipped to that.
In the above incidences and several others CMA and NSE were squarely to blame for failing to exercise prudence as stipulated in their guidelines. CMA as a regulator leaves a lot to be desired in regulatory matter. It’s the high time the crucial body its mandate to the letter so that investors can restore the confidence in the stock market.
James Mwangi Kanyi