THE ROLE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP PRACTICES IN MITIGATING RISKS IN STOCK BROKERAGE FIRMS IN NAIROBI

The success or failure of any organization rests on its leadership. In the 21 st century, corporate governance is becoming a matter of enormous public attention and concern. With regard to policy and regulatory changes that have taken place in the stock market, more emphasis has been put on the need to improve corporate governance and strategic leadership practices of stock brokerage firms. The rate of Stock brokerage firms collapse in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is alarming. Over the past few years, Kenyan investors have watched desperately as various brokerage companies collapse. The aim of this study was to assess strategic leadership and corporate governance practices existing in stock brokerage firms and establish whether those practices enable those firm to mitigate risks and maximize investors’ returns. The study adopted a descriptive design. A sample size of 64 managers from finance and operations departments was selected randomly in each organization involved in this study. Primary data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. The major findings were that all the brokerage firms have boards of directors. However, majority of board members did not have adequate skills, knowledge or experience in strategic leadership, stock brokerage finance and risk management. The study concluded that corporate governance and strategic leadership practices were not being applied optimally to mitigate risks in the firms under study. This explained why several companies in the stock market had either collapsed or were experiencing financial distress. Key words: Strategic leadership, Corporate Governance, Risk Management