{"id":35216,"date":"2017-06-19T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-how-candidates-are-beating-cbk-rules-on-big\/"},"modified":"2017-06-19T10:14:38","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T10:14:38","slug":"kenya-how-candidates-are-beating-cbk-rules-on-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-how-candidates-are-beating-cbk-rules-on-big\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:How candidates are beating CBK rules on big cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge addresses a media briefing about the Monetary Policy Committee at CBK building in Nairobi on May 30, 2017. The CBK has put in place guidelines to prevent financial fraud. }<\/p>\n

Politicians have resorted to keeping millions of shillings in their houses or using their trusted friends to withdraw money from their accounts beyond the Sh1 million cap imposed by the Central Bank, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

With campaign expenses ranging from millions to billions of shillings, depending on whether one is vying for a parliamentary seat or the presidency, it has become necessary to devise ways of circumventing the Central Bank guidelines introduced last year to fight money laundering.<\/p>\n

Politicians require large sums of money ahead of the August 8 General Election, billed as Kenya\u2019s most competitive and most expensive.<\/p>\n

FINANCE LIMIT
\nMPs who were interviewed separately registered their displeasure with the guidelines even as they devised ways of circumventing the rules to run their campaigns.<\/p>\n

Suna East MP Junet Mohamed said the law was not well thought out \u201cand is even stifling the economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the cap is hurting politicians since they are fully in campaign mode, following the indefinite adjournment of the 11th Parliament on Thursday last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having a serious problem at the moment with that cap, politicians are not having it easy,\u201d Mr Junet told the Nation.<\/p>\n

{{Bank accounts
\n}}<\/p>\n

The MP said the country has not developed to a point of using cashless transactions and many people still depend on withdrawing huge sums of money from banks to run errands.<\/p>\n

Another MP who wished not to be named said there are many ways of circumventing the guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have opened five accounts with different names and therefore I can withdraw five million in one day,\u201d the MP, who refused to be named, said.<\/p>\n

{{Illegal }} <\/p>\n

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung\u2019wa said the regulation is irregular and illegal and should he make it back to Parliament, he will move an amendment to have it revoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should I be limited on the amount of my money that I should withdraw? The regulations have totally no standing in the law, and I will sue the bank should they block me from accessing my money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a way of circumventing the guidelines, Mr Ichungwa said many politicians transfer money to their trusted friend\u2019s bank accounts then withdraw it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has really made life difficult for us. At the moment, we need to pay people whose cars we hire for campaign tours, tents, chairs and other items.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a big function and the bills of all these surpass Sh1 million, what do you do? Nobody trusts a cheque from politicians, especially during this campaign period, we have to pay in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n

{{Corruption }}<\/p>\n

He said the regulations were never taken to the delegated committee of Parliament to check their legality and whether they were in the best interest of Kenyans.<\/p>\n

Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi described the guidelines as a nuisance and unnecessary inconvenience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many ways of going round it, the guidelines are causing a lot of challenges for us at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The directive was put in place in January last year by CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge amid revelations that suspects in corruption scandals were freely carting away millions of shillings in sacks from banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn compliance with this requirement, all customers making transactions that meet the stipulated amounts will be required to complete a form that captures the source of funds, reason for the transaction rather than electronic means and where the money will be taken after it leaves the bank,\u201d Dr Njoroge said in the guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can use different names in a cheque and withdraw even Sh10 million in a day, so as much as the law is good, those with more money still get their way,\u201d Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda said.<\/p>\n

{{EACC raids }}<\/p>\n

Other tricks used by politicians, Mr Ochanda said, is keeping the money in the house to avoid hassles in the banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have seen when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission officers raid a home of a politician or anybody under investigations and millions of shillings in cash is recovered, an indication that people keep money in their houses instead of taking it to the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kajiado North MP Joseph Manje said he has no problem with the guidelines, saying they are good because they would stop money laundering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guidelines will not affect us much because if you withdraw Sh1 million as a politician that should be enough for you for the day, moreover banks only need a reason for the withdrawal so nobody has been stopped from withdrawing more than one million,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

While releasing the guidelines, Dr Njoroge had said: \u201cThis new guideline aims to reduce the risk inherent with cash transactions, such as losses due to fraud and theft.<\/p>\n

“We encourage you to consider use of electronic payments, which are an alternative and secure channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Central<\/figure>\n

Source:Daily Nation <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge addresses a media briefing about the Monetary Policy Committee at CBK building in Nairobi on May 30, 2017. The CBK has put in place guidelines to prevent financial fraud. } Politicians have resorted to keeping millions of shillings in their houses or using their trusted friends to withdraw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-35216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35216"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=35216"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=35216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}