Government-Owned Enterprises (GOEs) play a critical role in the delivery of essential public services, infrastructure development, and the management of strategic national assets. The draft bill, seeks to establish a unified legal and institutional framework to enhance governance, streamline oversight, and improve the efficiency and accountability of GOEs.

As a professional body committed to upholding credibility, professionalism, and accountability, ICPAK recognizes the importance of ensuring that the proposed framework not only addresses past governance gaps but also aligns with international best practices. Our submission therefore focused on strengthening provisions relating to board appointments, conflict of interest management, political neutrality, transition arrangements, and overall governance standards to safeguard public resources and promote sustainable enterprise performance.

On The Capital Markets Amendment Bill, 2025- ICPAK appreciates the objective of enhancing regulatory flexibility by empowering the Cabinet Secretary, in consultation with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), to prescribe shareholding limits through regulations, the Institute is however concerned that the deletion of subsections (4)– (7) of the Capital Markets Act removes critical statutory safeguards that upholds market integrity, investor interests, and corporate governance standards.

ICPAK therefore proposed a hybrid approach to retain the baseline statutory limit as stipulated in the Act. In addition, any proposed regulatory changes to shareholding thresholds should be subject to a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) which is a tool recognized by Kenya, world bank and The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), public consultation, and Parliamentary scrutiny. This approach balances the need for regulatory agility with the imperative of safeguarding market stability and investor confidence.