Why Omtata wants issuance of new bank notes stopped

Japheth Ogila 

Activist Omkia Omtata during the hearing retirement age for judges case at the Supreme Court on August 8, 2016. [File, Standard]

Activist Okiya Omtata has moved to the High Court to file a petition challenging the invalidation of current Sh1,000 notes effective from October 1, as was ordered by CBK boss Dr. Patrick Njoroge.
In his petition, Mr Omtata has raised various issues relating to the action which he describes as irregular, unconstitutional and rushed.  The petition cites The Central Bank of Kenya, its Governor Dr. Njoroge and the Attorney General as the respondents.
Omtata has urged the court through his petition to issue an interim order stopping the circulation of newly launched Kenyan currency bank notes on grounds that the due process was not followed.
He also wants the court to grant an order stopping Central Bank of Kenya and Dr. Njoroge or any other agency from participating in circulating the new bank notes.
Earlier on, the CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge had addressed the press clarifying that all the legal requirements were factored in prior to the announcement.
But on the contrary, Mr Omtata’s petition brands Government’s move as one laden with lies especially when it purports to have gazetted the directive.
It noted: “It is a lie that the currency was issued vide the Gazette Notice of 31st May 2019 as no such gazette notice exists at the Government Printer. A copy of The Kenya Gazette Published on 31st May 2019 does not contain a notice issuing the currency.”
It accused the CBK of rushing the directive and by-stepping the much needed public participation-a process that Dr. Njoroge said that they considered before the June 1 announcement.
Even as the Government prides in the new look currency notes; Omtata’s petition has pointed constitutional breach in article 231 (4). This it said is traced from the cunning but unnecessary introduction of the portrait of former President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in the designed notes.
“The petitioner is aggrieved that, contrary to Article 231(4) of the Constitution which decrees that Kenyan currency bank notes shall not bear the portrait of any individual, each new generation Kenyan currency banknote bears a prominently displayed portrait of the late President Jomo Kenyatta,” it stated.
He has said that the mess was created when designers used the picture of Kenyatta International Conference Centre just to sneak in the portrait of the former president. The petition described the action as some way of ‘breathing life in the image of Ceasar’ against the requirements of the Constitution.
It stated: “Putting the portrait of the late President Jomo Kenyatta on the new generation Kenyan currency notes is an affront to Article 231(4) of the Constitution, which bars “Cesar’s Head” from Kenyan currency notes and coins.”
He even said that Kenyans who gave views in the making of the Constitution have been betrayed.
“The people’s express wish during the constitution of Kenya review process to disassociate imagery on Kenyan money with any individual. And that wish was captured and codified in Article 231(4) of the Constitution as the will of the sovereign people of Kenya,” read the petition in part.
However, after having learnt of the filed petition to challenge the CBK move, Governor Njoroge in his address has exuded confidence that they will triumph in a legal battle.
“I have been informed of a legal challenge that has just been filed. We are going to deal with those issues as a matter of priority,” he remarked.
Dr Njoroge got a rare opportunity to address the country on June 1, 2019, Madaraka Day celebrations in Narok, where he announced that Sh1,000 old generation notes would cease to be legal tender from October 1.