Patrick Njoroge: Comments on dangers of recent amendments to Kenya's Banking Act

Talking points by Dr Patrick Njoroge, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, for the presentation on Section 33C of the Banking Act, National Assembly Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, Nairobi, 26 February 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Hon. Members, I am delighted to appear today before this Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning. I am grateful to you for the flexibility you allowed in arranging this meeting. At the outset. I want to make three points.

First, I acknowledge the letters I received in the recent past requesting me to appear before this Committee. I want to state our desire to meet with you, only that the scheduling did not allow this to happen sooner as I indicated in my replies. In replying to the letter of February 5, 2018, I indicated our desire to appear before the committee as soon as we could, and I also answered some of the questions. Hon. Members, I am prepared to address the remaining concerns. Kulingana na methali "Mgeni njoo, mwenyeji apone".

Second, I want to assure Hon. Members that the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) serves the public interest. Everything we do is according to its mandate, ultimately for the prosperity of all Kenyans. On the specific questions, we are responding to the current challenges which are not only national but global-terrorism, money laundering, and corruption-and whose consequences are dire.