The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Treasury denied MPs access to an audit report on the collapse of Imperial Bank.
Attorney-General Paul Kihara Kariuki blocked CBK and Treasury from releasing the findings and clarified that the billionaire owner and management were still under investigation over the bank's collapse.
Availing the report would allow MPs to tamper with the investigation, according to CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge.
Imperial Bank collapsed in 2015 and was put under receivership by the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC). CBK flagged it for money laundering, tax fraud and tampering with IT systems.
"The Attorney-General advised that, in the circumstances, sharing at this stage the findings and summaries of the forensic audit would undermine investigations and prejudice successful prosecution and defence of the ongoing cases. The overriding objective is to guard against prejudicing the course of investigations.
"CBK sees considerable risks given the significance of these cases with respect to the financial sector and also the legal system, and the strong desire not to jeopardise their fair and prompt conclusion," Governor Njoroge explained.
In February 2020, detectives unravelled missing Ksh34 billion which was traced to the late Imperial Bank Managing Director, Abdulmalek Janmohamed, eight bank accounts.
Janmohamed was accused of robbing the bank of the said amount in a span of 13 years. The deceased alongside his associates allegedly embezzled the funds through 12 unregulated companies.
It was further alleged that the directors, later on, failed to cooperate with CBK on the reopening of the bank. They reportedly declined to deposit Ksh10 billion to revive the institution.
The bank depositors have held protests in the past years demanding the directors to put in money to refloat the bank, lamenting that they couldn't sustain themselves as they were cash-strapped.
Most of the depositors were said to be business people, charity organisations, and individual investors.
