This archive report was first published on 3 October 2019.
Published on October 3, 2019, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) announced that Kenyans failed to return more than seven million pieces of old-generation Sh1,000 notes before the September 30th withdrawal deadline.
CBK Governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge stated that the value of money that did not come back is equivalent to the value lost during the Goldenberg case.
Out of 217 million pieces of old Sh1,000 notes, only 209 million were returned by the end of September, leaving Sh7.4 billion worth of notes worthless.
Dr. Njoroge noted that 3,172 suspicious transactions were flagged during the demonetization period, and investigating authorities are carrying out relevant investigations.
Responding to claims that the demonetization exercise did not go as planned, Dr. Njoroge stated that there was no impact on inflation, no queue of buyers of high-value assets to launder money, and few queues at banks.
During the press briefing, Dr. Njoroge held up a briquette of the shredded old Sh1,000 notes, explaining that the notes were shredded and compacted into a briquette after being punched.
