Four days after the September 30, CBK deadline for the submission of the old 1,000 shilling notes elapsed, a section of Kenyans from remote areas of the republic have come out in protest.
The Kenyans from Tana River and Lamu counties want the Central Bank of Kenya to review and extend the deadline.
Insisting that they still have the old 1,000 notes in a high value, the pastoralists said their nomadic way of life denied them from the opportunity to exchange the old currency in good time.
The demonetisation decision by the government was aimed at ridding Kenya’s economy of the so-called ‘black money’.
It also targeted what the Central Bank of Kenya referred to as ‘emerging concerns about illicit financial flows and counterfeit money in the country’.
When the more than 2,000 pastoralists who had migrated to remote areas of Tana River and Lamu counties came back home their Sh1,000 notes were no longer legal tender.
The herders appealed to the Central Bank to open a short window for them to swap their old notes.
The pastoralists, who had been grazing in Witu and Boni in Lamu, say owing to long journeys in the wilderness, they could not get back home in time to beat the September 30, deadline.
Speaking to the Daily Nation the herdsmen narrated how they came to discover that their Sh1,000 notes were useless during the weekend after they reached trading centers and tried to pay for services.
"We tried paying for food in a hotel in Minjila, only to be told the money was not valid. It nearly ended in a confrontation with the hotel owner, but someone who understood where we had come from later explained to us what was going on," said Mohammed Barisa.
According to the pastoralists, another group of about 2,000 pastoralists is still grazing their livestock unaware of the major currency change made in the country.
One pastoralist complained that they suffered massive losses when they sold their livestock to unscrupulous businessmen who used the old 1,000 notes during the transaction.
The pastoralists are now appealing to CBK boss Patrick Njoroge to allow them to exchange their notes. The unfortunate Kenyans who reside in different areas of the two counties said they had leaders who could vouch for them
