The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Wednesday, September 2, made a major announcement regarding the unreturned old Ksh1000 notes.
CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge disclosed that after the September 30, deadline elapsed 7,386,000 pieces of the old KSh 1,000 had not been returned.
"This meant that KSh7,386,000,000 became worthless pieces of paper," CBK announced.
The CBK also stated that the value of the unreturned notes was equivalent to the money lost by the government in the Goldenberg scandal.
Njoroge also stated that Kenyans had demanded and equally deserved a fresh start away from corruption, and as such, the demonetisation process was only a beginning.
"We cannot glorify criminals and ‘flamboyant businessmen’. We need to maintain a system that is devoid of this criminal activity," he announced
The CBK governor revealed that he was satisfied by how the process had been conducted stating that the notion that Kenyans were last-minute people had been broken.
"Demonetisation has been successful because we have completed it smoothly, with AML/CFT filters firmly in place, and kept out money whose owners did not want to be subjected to the relevant checks in the system,
"The hypothesis that Kenyans are procrastinators and wait until the last minute was disproved. Kenyans will act properly when they know what is good for them," he stated.
In the process, 3,172 suspicious transactions were flagged and CBK announced that the other institutions (KRA, EACC, FRC, DCI) were continuing with the relevant investigations.
