Parliament has flagged reports of a ruling from the Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula over the Central Bank of Kenya's regulations on large cash transactions.
The media reports purported that Wetangula had termed the CBK regulations on large cash transactions as illegal.
In a statement from Samuel Njoroge, the Clerk of the National Assembly on Wednesday, January 25, the communication from the Speaker was a reminder to the committee on its power to call up for scrutiny of any regulations that pass by an Act of Parliament.
In the clarification, the Clerk affirmed that Speaker Wetangula directed the Committee to report to the House on circumstances when a regulation-making authority fails to table regulations for the House to take action.
Part of these actions, according to the Clerk, includes notifying the public of the non-compliant nature of the authority.
"The National Assembly is currently on recess and the Speaker has not addressed the media on the matters contained in the publication.
"No attempt was made to seek confirmation or clarification of the details from the Office of the Speaker or the Clerk prior to the publication of the misleading item," the statement read in part.
The Clerk also clarified that the Teachers Service Commission's delocalisation policy was not deemed illegal as reported by a section of the media.
According to the National Assembly, the speculations did not reflect the content of the communication issued by the Speaker.
As it stands, customers are required to disclose the source, purpose as well as beneficiaries before one can get clearance from local banks to transact over Ksh1.5 million in cash.
The regulations by the CBK were effected in 2009 in a bid to curb money laundering activities. In the regulations, customers are also required to disclose the direct and indirect beneficiaries of large cash transactions.
The CBK, in 2016, also affirmed that the banking sector was vulnerable to suspicious activities such as money laundering from lawbreakers.
In September 2022, President William Ruto announced that his government was working with CBK to review the capping of money Kenyans can transact from Ksh1 million, without notifying the regulator.
“Many have reverted to storing money under their mattresses, at great security risk. This is clearly not the intention of the anti-money laundering regulations.
While we remain fully committed to mitigating this risk, we believe that there is scope to make compliance less burdensome on genuine business transactions,” the President remarked.
