Effect of Selected Board Characteristics on Financial Voluntary Disclosure among Manufacturing Firms Listed in Nairobi Securities Exchange Michael Kimeu Kamwana Dr Robert Ombati (PhD)

Information asymmetry aids in investment decision making. In several instances listed companies are only required to disclose information as stipulated in international financial reporting and capital market authority guidelines. In some cases, listed companies provide quantitative and qualitative information which may be paramount to decision making amongst different stakeholders. Consequently, the study investigated the effect of selected board characteristics on financial voluntary disclosure among manufacturing firms listed in Nairobi securities in Exchange. Exploratory research was adopted and census of all 10 listed manufacturing applied. Correlation and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Results of the study revealed positive and significant relationship between board size, independent directorship, audit committee size, gender board diversity board ownership and financial voluntary disclosure. It was concluded that there is need to incorporate independent board membership, match board size with company size, have fully functional audit committee,