Muthaura to exit as head of Capital Markets Authority on year end

Capital Markets Authority chief executive Paul Muthaura will leave office at the end of the year, after a seven-and-a-half year stint as the at the helm of the markets regulator.

Mr Muthaura, 41, informed the board about his decision to call time on his career at the markets regulator during a meeting on Friday morning.

“Mr Muthaura had scored highly in all his performance appraisals since becoming chief executive,” said CMA chairman James Ndegwa said in a statement.

“While respecting his decision, the Board would have gladly considered a further renewal of Mr Muthaura’s contract.”

Mr Muthaura joined CMA in 2005 as a legal expert mandated to set up a legal framework for the regulator.

At the time he was working at the law firm of Daley & Figgis (now Daley & Inamdar) as a senior commercial associate.

He would later be elevated to the position of acting chief executive after the departure of Stella Kilonzo in June 2012, holding the position until he was appointed to the position substantively in January 2016 on a four year contract.

Chief executives of State corporations are usually handed four-year contracts, renewable once, meaning they serve a maximum of eight years.

Their terms can, however, be extended for a shorter period, usually a year, under special considerations as was the case with the former commissioner-general of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) John Njiraini.

Mr Ndegwa said in the statement the exiting CEO has been instrumental in enhancing the regulatory and legal framework, expanding the scope of capital markets products that have positioned Kenya in the regional and global capital markets arena.

Some of the new products introduced in Kenya’s capital markets during his watch include Real Estate Investment Trusts in 2015, Global Depository Receipts (2017) and derivatives (2019).

He headed new units of legal framework development and enforcement, before rising to become the director of regulatory policy and strategy before moving to the corner office.