The Central Bank of Kenya is in the final stages of adding security features on the new-generation currency before rolling them out before the end of the year, the National Treasury has confirmed. Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich says the bank has completed the designs of the currency and is in the process of procuring a printer.
“Central Bank is working on this, they are in the process of procuring the printer, and the design work has largely been completed, the feature is in its final stages and then proceeds to print,” Rotich said last Thursday.
This confirmation comes after speculation spread on social media last week on some of the purported leaked designs bearing images of the Big Five wild animals found in the country. The leaked images showed that the Ksh500 note will bear the image of a lion, Ksh200 note the image of a rhino, Ksh1,000 the image of an elephant and Ksh100 note the image of a cheetah.
However, the Central Bank is yet to confirm the authenticity of these images and questions by The Star newspaper on the same were not responded to. The CBK communications team only referre to what the Governor, Patrick Njoroge, said last week.
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Addressing a media briefing, the governor said the rollout of the new currency will be done in accordance with the Central Bank Act and other laws that govern the process.
“The issue is not transition, the issue is where do we end up, that’s why we are very clear on how we want to see the new regime currency,” Njoroge said.
The pressure to release the new generation currency was mounted on CBK two weeks ago when activist Okiya Omtatah wrote a letter addressed to the governor, giving the bank seven days to remove the image of the late President Jomo Kenyatta and retired head of state Daniel Moi from the current currency. The Sh40 coin bearing the image of President Mwai Kibaki will also be affected.
Omtatah based his case on Article 231 of the 2010 Constitution which states that “notes and coins issued by the Central Bank of Kenya may bear images that depict or symbolise Kenya or an aspect of Kenya but shall not bear the portrait of any individual.”
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On the start of its implementation, the new Constitution introduced in August 2010 gave the Central Bank a five-year period to replace the old currency with the new ones. However, like Rotich, Njoroge declined to give a timeline for the rollout, citing unfinished business in the plan.
Appearing before the Senate in March last year, Governor Njoroge said the intention was to rollout the new currency before the end of September this year. He added that the process will require Ksh18 billion to withdraw the current notes in circulation for a period of three years in addition to carrying out mass awareness campaigns across the country. Currently, the notes in circulation are printed by currency service provider De La Rue, based in Ruaraka.
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