Kenyans in Diaspora Must Travel Back Home to Exchange Old Sh1,000 Notes, Central Bank Says
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge has said Kenyans in the diaspora who are holding the old Sh1,000 notes must travel back and exchange them with the new banknotes before the October 1st deadline.
Njoroge said the regulator will not allow any form of conversion of the old notes outside Kenya’s borders.
Speaking on Thursday, Governor Njoroge said CBK notified all foreign banks to stop accepting the legacy currency.
Njoroge pointed out that allowing the exchange of the old currency outside Kenya's borders would defeat their aim of combating illicit money flows.
“If you have the Kenyan currency and you happen to be outside the country, there is only one way to get value for it before October 1," said Njoroge.
"You have to take a trip here and go through the procedures outlined in the Gazette notice and subsequent releases. You cannot convert it to any other currency out there since this would defeat the process of demonetization.”
Kenya's neighbors Uganda and Tanzania issued notices this month freezing the exchange of the old Kenyan notes in their banks.
Exchanging of amounts between Sh1 million and Sh5 million is happening at all commercial bank branches in the country. Such customers are required to make declarations on the source of their money before exchange.
Those seeking to convert Sh5 million and above are required do so at the CBK headquarters at Times Tower in Nairobi.
Njoroge also said the period of exchanging the old generation currency would not be extended.
"Kenyans love extensions, but if we have an extension to this process it defeats the purpose of the demonetization. So, come midnight of the last day of September, that’s it,” Njoroge said.
Comments (8)
"such customers are required to make declarations on source of their money before exchange". Way to go Njoroge! Nab them. Collect all the unpaid taxes, rate fees fines and penalties accrued. All dubious declared sources of money should be forwarded to the Director of Prosecution for possible money laundering charges. This is a smart and great tool in fighting corruption. All the crooked tax evading Wahindi in Kenya must be in a panic mood in haste to drop off the Ksh1000 bill. They must be tendering sh.1000 bill in purchasing any and all small items. They must be busy buying any dollar they can find. Corruption is a serious disease that must be eradicated or else, our great nation of Kenya is doomed.
@ Mwororo,it all sounds perfectly reasonable until you realize you would spend up to $1500 on a flight to change $10. The break even point would be 150000 shillings. Why would anyone leave Kenya and hang on to $10k worth of Kenya currency. Any competent thief would surely have converted any sums larger than that by now to a more portable currency, say dollars or euros or even bitcoin. So that only leaves the small businessmen and women which means that once again the corrupt individuals and cartels get away with the loot. I doubt that those in the top levels of government and their cartel cronies have any Kenyan currency abroad.
Many Kenyans in diaspora have few thou's with them. Why should I buy a air ticket to go and exchange 5K or 6K I might have in my pocket?
Serikali ya Kenya iwape uwezo afisi zote za ubalozi wa Kenya kugeuza pesa za Kenya katika nchi za kigeni ambazo Wakenya walipo.
Embassy can exchange the notes for Kenyans but then again, thats asking for too much. This embassy should close doors and stop pretending they are serving Kenyans. They are serving themselves and a few other favorites. Bure kabisa.
KUDOS! WELL DONE JOB. GET THEM HONEST.
Hello Diasporans,
Donate your old notes to Healthcare Access Worldwide Inc. We have a medical mission in September and would be happy to take the old notes as donation for our mission.
If you want to donate, contact us:
healthcareaccess2017@gmail
com.
Thanks
Faith A. Richard (Founder & CEO)
Healthcare Access Worldwide Inc.
P.O Box 201774
Cleveland, OH 44120