Dec 15, 2015 Six month into his tenure, Kenya’s central bank governor, Patrick Njoroge has achieved what most of his have failed to pull off. He has shunned the fleet of luxury cars and the plush villa that come with his office, a gesture that has made people feel their money is safe in his hands.
Speaking during an interview, Njoroge, who is a member of Opus Dei, a Catholic group that encourages saintly living, said:
“I am who I am and I believe in living in a certain way which is, I do not want to be hampered by X number of motorcars. I mean how could you possibly drive five motorcars at once, I mean if you can, do let me know but I think you can only drive one at any one time, why not stick to that one car and when it is in service use another one, whatever. I mean simple life. The big man sort of syndrome which is the only way to show who I am is by flaunting all the possessions that I have, is kind of dangerous,”
The Yale-educated banker, who was appointed in June, talked about how monetary policy was anchoring inflation and steadying the country’s currency.
Commenting on the effect of his tight monetary policies, he said:
“I think this has allowed us a bit of time to go through the existing deposits or depositors existing loans to verify whether these really do exist and verify that these are true deposits loans that we do have specific documentation and all those other things and we expect that this work will be done and completed by the end of March next year, and at that point we can decide on a way forward. In the interim of course we are waiting on the share holders, the shareholders and we are urging them to come forward and provide the needed resources to reopen the bank. All options remain on the table.”