President Uhuru Kenyatta has reappointed Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge for a second four-year term.
Also reappointed are chairman Mohammed Nyaoga, and deputy governor Sheila M’Mbijjewe.
Through a special Gazette notice dated May 24, Uhuru extended their tenure with effect from June 18. They were appointed in June 2015.
MPs in March threatened to have the CBK boss ousted, over the publication of banking regulation.
The legislators claimed his failure to publish the regulations, which prescribe customer deposits and withdrawals as provided for in the Banking Act after amendments to the Finance Act in August 2018, amounted to contempt of Parliament.
The Finance Act required Njoroge to publish the regulations with 30 days of their enforcement.
In his objection, the governor said the law could not be implemented as law and warned that relaxing money laundering and terrorism laws would frustrate the war against corruption and cut off Kenya’s banking sector from the best practices in the global banking system.
When he appeared before the House committee on Finance and National Planning, Njoroge said Kenya would be in danger of being blacklisted by international bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“The adverse effects of the amendment on the banking sector would be an immediate termination of relationships by foreign correspondent banks and closure of accounts of Kenyan banks (derisking),” Njoroge said.
The CBK governor has, however, on the positive been credited with the strengthening of regulations in the financial sector to include the tightening of anti-money laundering laws.
His banking reforms also resulted in the collapse of Dubai and Chase Bank in late 2015 and the eventual demise of Imperial Bank in 2016.
The steady currency, efforts to boost loans to small businesses and market-led bank consolidation has also been attributed to his leadership.
