EDITORIAL: CMA must be proactive

Editorials

EDITORIAL: CMA must be proactive

Tuesday, September 3, 2019 22:50

By EDITORIAL

For years, Kenya has had more than its fair share of pyramid schemes and rogue investment ventures fleecing the public of their hard-earned cash on promises of quick and handsome returns.

That such outfits have continued to thrive even to date is a testament of how easy it is for an entity to take advantage of a gullible public, with little or no repercussions to itself or its directors.

But it is also a serious indictment on the regulators whose responsibility is to educate and protect the public from the actions of such unscrupulous entities.

Only on Monday, the Capital Markets Authority warned the public against investing in a firm by the name WIE Limited or Women Investing in Entrepreneurship -- a capital-raising venture targeting women investors.

The CMA said the activities of the firm -- which had already raised some unspecified amounts of money from 279 women -- were unauthorised.

This is the latest of such groups that have emerged in recent years, and it is surprising that the CMA has only offered a warning rather than put the DCI on the trail of the people behind the illegal move.

CMA ought to be more proactive by continuously educating the public against spending their on illegal or unauthorised firms offering false promises. More than that, the regulator must involve the law enforcement agencies to deal with cases like these and ensure that crime does not pay.