Central Bank Governor backs graft crackdown at Treasury

Zachary Ochuodho @zachuodho

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK)  Governor Patrick Njoroge has supported the move to charge top National Treasury officials over the Kimwarer and Arror dams scandal.

Njoroge said yesterday corruption was a drain to the economy and those involved must be held to account. “The issue of corruption is a significant drain to any community, society or economy. That is why there is a need to deal with the issue decisively,” Dr Njoroge said.

He called for strengthening of public institutions to deal with corruption. On Tuesday, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji tabled documents before a Nairobi court to show that National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge conspired with 14 others to defraud the government of Sh51 billion.

Speaking during the post Monetary Policy Committee meeting briefing, Njoroge predicted that the Kenyan economy would grow by six per cent this year mainly due to stronger-than-expected performance in agriculture.

Expect growth

“We expect growth to remain strong throughout the year. We are projecting a six per cent growth as a baseline. It can be stronger but that is our take,” Njoroge said.

He assured the public that demonetisation process was progressing well and urged those who have not exchanged old Sh1,000 notes to do so before September 30.

He assured the public that recalling the Sh1,000 notes will not spike inflation as was the case when Sh500 notes were introduced in the 1990s.

“The print button on my desk has been disabled. So we are not funding the government, we are not financing any other project including elections which that happened then,” he said.

He said the new Sh1,000 banknotes were not available in most parts of the country because they had been released in small quantities.