The unveiling of the new bank notes has continued to elicit a lot of reactions. The new bank new notes were launched as a scheme to nab cartels who are using ‘pillow banking.’
The call to withdraw Ksh1,000 bank notes is the main talking point among top politicians.
ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi has asked the CBK not to extend the deadlines for the submission of the Ksh1,000 notes.
Musalia Mudavadi speaks on new currency deadline. /ANC
Hon Mudavadi also warned Kenyans against being used to launder money. He spoke this as a section of ODM legislators urged the CBK to reconsider changing the new bank notes bearing the image of late President Jomo Kenyatta.
Otiende Amollo: The major issue is the image of the new notes; Article 231 is very clear and does not allow anyone’s portrait on the face of the notes or coins.
The new notes show a clear representation of the founding father on all the notes which to me is wrong #DayBreak pic.twitter.com/8Z7nCt3U45
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) June 3, 2019
He has asked financial managers to be vigilant as most cartels are capitalising on the time line to launder money.
Concerning images on the new bank notes, CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge has stated that they followed the right procedures in making the new currency.
Patrick Njoroge (CBK governor): We have followed all the applicable laws to get to this point and in terms of quality of the notes we have tried listening to the public.
We involved the public in the designs of the notes and various features on it pic.twitter.com/Yj2ZtHy192
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) June 3, 2019
Deputy President William Ruto’s allies have faulted the October 1 deadline set by the Central Bank of Kenya to phase out old banknotes.
Legislators led by Kimani Ichungwa said the deadline should be revised.
This is following the directive by CBK on Saturday to make current Ksh1000 notes obsolete on October 1.
The Kikuyu MP said in order to fast track acquisition of money stashed in people’s houses, the deadline should be moved to July 1.
He argued that the October deadline is quite far, adding that the money should be released to develop the economy.