This archive report was first published on 2 October 2019.
Published on October 2, 2019, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has unveiled plans to dispose of the old Ksh.1000 notes collected during the demonetization period.
CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge revealed that the bank will shred and package the entire sum of 209.7 million collected old series Ksh.1000 notes before destroying them. The notes will be shredded into briquettes, with each briquette representing a sum of notes equivalent to Ksh.1 million.
Over the four months to September, Kenyans returned 209.7 million individual Ksh.1000 notes, equivalent to Ksh.209.7 billion. In response, the CBK injected Ksh.149.7 billion worth of new currency notes into circulation to fill the created void.
Notably, a total of 7.4 million notes worth Ksh.7.4 billion were not exchanged and are now worthless.
The CBK's plan to dispose of the collected currency was in response to a critique leveled on the bank over the environmental impact of the destruction of the demonetized notes.
