The Central Bank of Kenya has disputed claims that there is a shortage of Sh. 200 and Sh. 100 bank notes.
This follows allegations that were made this week by the Cabinet Secretary for Interior Fred Matiang’i.
Dr. Matiang’i claimed that politicians had withdrawn huge amounts of the Sh. 100 and Sh. 200 notes from banks to bribe Kenyans living in rural areas. This, he said, had resulted in an acute shortage of the notes.
“Many people are not working. They are standing by the roadside to get Sh. 200 bribes,” he said.
However, CBK Governor Dr. Patrick Njoroge has rubbished this claim and stated that Kenya has enough of the notes in circulation.
“I don’t know where the story about small notes is coming from, all I can tell you is that we supply notes as demanded by banks,” Dr. Njoroge said.
“For instance in the month of July we supplied an equivalent of Sh. 2.1 billion of the Sh. 100 notes. From where we stand, when a bank demands we supply.”
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Bribery of voters using the Sh. 200 notes has become rampant in sections of the country. One of the most affected areas being Ol Kalou Constituency in Nyandarua County where an area politician had gained notoriety for these bribes.