Unmask!!Kenya’s new look currency set to be released

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Kenya is set to have a new currency coming next year after the British security printer firm De La Rue won a Ksh11.1 billion three  year contract to design and manufacture Kenya’s new generation currency.

De La Rue disclosed that it plans to deliver the first batch of the banknotes, which will not bear the image of an individual in 2019.

The pricing of the initial batch of the new notes means it will cost the taxpayer Ksh2.4 billon.

The decision allowed the CBK and the security printer to proceed with production of the new currency notes as required under the 2010 Constitution.

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The award of the contract comes after the Court of Appeal on October 12 reversed the High Court’s earlier decision to quash De La Rue’s winning of the tender. The decision allowed the CBK and the security printer to proceed with production of the new currency notes as required under the 2010 Constitution.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has meanwhile filed a notice to fight the Court of Appeal’s finding at the Supreme Court, arguing that the procurement process favoured De La Rue and that the firm’s bid did not meet the requirements of the law.

If admitted at the Supreme Court, Mr Omtata’s appeal could further delay the printing of the new generation currency whose procurement started in 2014.

De La Rue, which has operated in Kenya for more than 25 years, says it is investing more in its factory in Ruaraka, Nairobi as part of a long-term plan to become a regional and Pan-African security printer.

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Besides banknotes, the company prints cheque books and passports, among other important documents.

The latest deal with the CBK will enable the government to comply with the Constitution, which says that “notes and coins issued by the Central Bank of Kenya may bear images that depict or symbolise an aspect of Kenya but shall not bear the portrait of an individual.”

Kenyan currency currently bears the images of former presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki.

De La Rue’s contract comes after the government took a 40 per cent stake in the multinational’s local subsidiary (De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited), paying £5 million (Sh654 million) in the transaction.

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