The Capital Markets Authority of Kenya, also Capital Markets Authority, is an independent government financial regulatory agency responsible for supervising, licensing and monitoring the activities of market intermediaries, including the stock exchange, and the central depository and settlement system and all the other persons licensed under the Capital Markets Act of Kenya. The Capital Markets Authority provides regulation for the financialservices sector by providing guidelines for the asset allocation. In the Capital Markets Act Cap 485A amended in 2013 guidelines for the amount of funds to be invested in each class of assets i.e. equities, government bonds and bills are given in ranges.
Establishment
The Capital Markets Authority is a corporate body with perpetual succession and a common seal and capable in its corporate name of:
Suing and being sued;
Taking, purchasing or otherwise acquiring, holding, charging and disposing of both movable and immovable property;
Borrowing and lending money;
Entering into contracts; and
Doing or performing all such other things or acts necessary for the proper performance of its functions under this Act which may lawfully be done by a body corporate.
Objectives
The main objectives of the CMA are stated to be:-
the development of all aspects of capital markets with particular emphasis on the removal of impediments to, and the creation of incentives for longer term investments in productive enterprises;
to facilitate the existence of a nationwide system of stock market and brokerage services so as to enable wider participation of the general public in the stock market;
the creation, maintenance and regulation of a market in which securities can be issued and traded in an orderly, fair and efficient manner, through the implementation of a system in which the market participants are self-regulatory to the maximum practicable extent;
the protection of investor interests;
the operation of a compensation fund to protect investors from financial loss arising from the failure of a licensed broker or dealer * to meet his contractual obligations; and
the development of a framework to facilitate the use of electronic commerce for the development of capital markets in Kenya.
