So how will Kung’u Gatabaki, the boardroom honcho picked to chair the Capital Markets Authority finally resolve the shenanigans surrounding the re-structuring of ownership at the Nairobi bourse?

Mr Gatabaki — who serves on the boards of nearly a dozen leading companies, most of which are listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange — was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki last week, throwing him at the centre of one of the biggest high-profile corporate wars, the demutualisation of the NSE.

The demutualisation process — diluting stockbrokers’ influence on management of the NSE — appears to have stalled following growing opposition from the stockbrokers and investment banks. The CMA, which seems unwilling to give in to the brokers’ demands, however, is still optimistic the process will be completed by the end of this year, at least going by what its boss Stella Kilonzo told The EastAfrican last week.

The biggest bone of contention between the CMA and the intermediaries is a demand by the latter that the regulator recognise the value of their shareholding at the NSE, currently estimated at $2.8 million each, as part of their balance sheet assets.

Following the stalemate, the intermediaries under their umbrella body the Kenya Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks (Kasib) have since withdrawn their two representatives on the steering committee spearheading the process.

“We made this decision after we realised our presence in that committee was unnecessary. Our concerns are not being heard,” said Willie Njoroge, acting CEO at Kasib. “The issue here is to get a suitable formula for sharing out assets of the exchange between members and the government, ” he added.

But this is unlikely to affect the running of the steering committee as the Kasib members were there by “invitation.”

The separation of ownership from management of the stock exchange is expected to attract more individual investors to the bourse by helping to enforce corporate governance among the players and positioning the country as the financial services hub of the East African region.

The process was expected to have been completed by April this year but rows over how it should proceed have meant delays in the reform which was among a series meant to gain back faltering investor confidence which has hit its lowest over the past four years with the collapse of three stockbrokers.

Kenya’s capital markets is gearing for more reforms introduced in the Finance Bill 2011, which are among other things expected to boost growth in the securities market. CMA will for example get powers to supervise, investigate and intervene in respect of central depositories in the interest of securing fair efficient and transparent securities settlement.

The proposed amendments to the CMA and the Central Depositories Acts also seek to broaden the scope of appeals against decisions of the Authority, which could be made to the Capital Markets Tribunal.

This means that applicants seeking to offer securities to the public will have the right to appeal against decisions of the CMA.