House team calls for resignation of CBK boss Ndung'u

Members of a parliamentary committee have resolved that the Central Bank Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u should resign for his failure to manage the depreciation of the shilling.

The MPs, in a report to the whole Parliament, have asked President Kibaki to set up a tribunal to investigate the governor’s “conduct, incapability and incompetence”, but before even the President takes action, the governor should own up that he was responsible for the rapid decline of the shilling.

Mr Adan Keynan, the chairman of Parliament’s Committee on the Depreciation of the Shilling, tabled the report with the recommendations in the House on Tuesday afternoon soon after parliament resumed its sittings after a six-week break.

“The Committee finds the Governor’s conduct and behaviour incompatible with the holder of the office of Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya,” the MPs said in the report.

The MPs have also given the commercial banks and the monetary policy committee a three-month ultimatum to make sure that the interest rates are reduced from the current high levels.

“The current interest rates of slightly over 30 per cent charged by banks are unrealistic, harmful and untenable,” the lawmakers noted in their report.

It has also recommended that the fine for banks involved in fiscal malpractice be raised from the current maximum of Sh1 million to 50 per cent of the money made or a maximum of Sh20 million, whichever is greater.

More to follow