Follow the law on new Kenyan currency
What you need to know:
- Seven Kenyans have this week petitioned Parliament not to allow the removal of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s portrait from the national currency.
- This is another attempt by conservative forces to slow down the implementation of the Constitution.
Seven Kenyans, led by one Muchiri Mithamo, have this week petitioned Parliament not to allow the removal of founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s portrait from the national currency.
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi forwarded the petition to the Finance Committee.
Let us not pretend. This is another attempt by conservative forces to slow down the implementation of the Constitution.
Article 231 (4) of the Constitution states: “Notes and coins issued by the Central Bank of Kenya may bear images that depict or symbolise Kenya or an aspect of Kenya but shall not bear the portrait of any individual.”
At independence the East African Shilling, notes and coins, bore the portrait of King George VI and his successor Queen Elizabeth II. The East African Currency Board had agreed on a common currency for the region.
But all this changed on June 10, 1965 when Tanzanian, then Ugandan Finance ministers announced in their Budget speeches that they will print their own currency notes with the portraits of their leaders.
This news came in as Kenya’s Finance minister James Gichuru was reading the Budget. Mr Gichuru immediately went off the written text and told MPs amid applause: “We are also going to mint ours bearing the portrait of our founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.” The new currency was issued in 1966 and for 15 years, it was in the pockets of Kenyans.
When President Daniel arap Moi took power in 1978, Mzee Kenyatta’s portrait was replaced by his.
The biggest mistake this time round was that the new regime hardly gave enough time for transition from one currency to the other.
ARBITRARY CHANGES
When President Mwai Kibaki took power in 2003, Kenyans were shocked when some of the old Kenyatta notes returned into circulation alongside the Moi currency. Like in the aftermath of 1978, the Moi currency later disappeared.
These arbitrary changes is what motivated Article 231 of the Constitution.
Indeed Muchiri may have a point that Kenyatta was a symbol of national unity. But their fears could well be accommodated as the CBK Governor is allowed some discretionary powers to retain Kenyatta’s statue at KICC at the back of the current Sh100 note as this does not meet the definition of a portrait.
It would be in line with worldwide trends in which the statue of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and the Statue of Liberty in New York are revered in their countries.
The US one dollar note has founding President George Washington while Tanzania’s TSH1,000 has Julius Nyerere on the face. The pyramids in Egypt and the statue of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s founding father are part of their national heritage.
In weighing the objects of Muchiri’s petition, Parliament’s Finance Committee ought to be alive to four factors. Whether Kenyans desires as stipulated in the supreme law can be trashed by seven individuals; the risk of setting a precedent for future regimes to change currency at will; entrenching double standards in the manner of doing business in future; and, Parliament’s credibility.
In my view, the country should ignore these sideshows and move on with the implementation of the Constitution.
