1. Uhuru must sign the bill or he will lose politically.
Truth is that the voting masses are not even aware of the bill. They are unbanked and their main source of credit are shopkeepers, neighbors, friends, relatives, mobile money and ROSCAs. FinAccess surveys show this as the truth. Wanjiku’s influence on this matter is gravely exaggerated. If we are interested in saving Wanjiku let us cap the mobile phone lending rates which are worse than those charged by shylocks.
2. Uhuru cannot sign the bill because he has interests in a bank.
Truth as strange as it may seem is that the bank he is said to own could turn out to be the main beneficiary of such signing. Suddenly small time savers would be kicked out of banks and into the arms of Mshwari. Furthermore once the bill is signed and the economy faces headwinds he can always blame bankers for the problems absolving the government of any role in economic meltdown hence still benefitting politically. The decision whether to sign the bill or not is not as hard as the media says
3. Government can borrow directly from Wanjiku and does not need to borrow from banks; they can go to hell.
The truth is that Wanjiku cannot even meet 10% of government’s demand for credit. Government net domestic borrowing last financial year stood at KShs 506b. When Chase Bank went under we learnt that 97% of Chase Bank depositors only held 6% of the total deposits. Wanjiku is a poor saver. Our saving to GDP ratio is nothing to talk about. Most deposits in banks belong to corporations.
4. Other developed countries have the caps.
Truth is that Kenya is not a developed country and our economy is sinfully informal. Comparing Kenya with those economies is comparing oranges with eggs. In any case some of those countries have their banking sectors crumbling
5. We can sign the bill and if it gets too hot we can always throw away the damn bill.
Truth is that while that can happen reversing the negative impacts can take years
6. Signing the bill will flood the economy with cheap money for all.
Truth is that wouldn’t happen and if it did hypothetically inflation would hit the roof and the cheap money would be useless.
