Rogue businesses get leaner fines for abuse of rules

An employee makes notes in front of an electronic stock information screen inside the Nairobi Securities Exchange Ltd. [File, Standard]

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has this year acted on 31 cases related to late submission of returns, share manipulation and failure to do basic reporting where firms and individuals were fined a modest Sh50,000 penalty.

Although some of the cases bordered on serious market rule violations, the fines were less than Sh50,000, a soft punishment that seemingly encouraged companies to violate compliance rules.