After winning a Ksh11.1 billion three year contract to design and manufacture Kenya’s new generation currency, British security printer firm De La Rue is already at work. President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday officially launched Kenya’s new currency, which had been set to take effect from the new year 2019. The President launched the coins, which are to have symbols rather than the portraits of the former Presidents of Kenya.
PRESIDENT KENYATTA launches new generation Kenyan currency in accordance with Constitution; currency to have symbols not portraits of persons. pic.twitter.com/KFZlpY1pCw
— NationBreakingNews (@NationBreaking) December 11, 2018
Kenyans are expected from today to start using the new generated coins. Central Bank of Kenya is set to start circulating the new currency today.
De La Rue had earlier disclosed that it plans to deliver the first batch of the banknotes, which will not bear the image of an individual in 2019.
The pricing of the initial batch of the new notes means it will cost the taxpayer Ksh2.4 billon.
The decision allowed the CBK and the security printer to proceed with production of the new currency notes as required under the 2010 Constitution.
The award of the contract came after the Court of Appeal on October 12 reversed the High Court’s earlier decision to quash De La Rue’s winning of the tender. The decision allowed the CBK and the security printer to proceed with production of the new currency notes as required under the 2010 Constitution.
De La Rue, which has operated in Kenya for more than 25 years, says it is investing more in its factory in Ruaraka, Nairobi as part of a long-term plan to become a regional and Pan-African security printer.
Besides banknotes, the company prints cheque books and passports, among other important documents.
The latest deal with the CBK will enable the government to comply with the Constitution, which says that “notes and coins issued by the Central Bank of Kenya may bear images that depict or symbolise an aspect of Kenya but shall not bear the portrait of an individual.”
Kenyan currency currently bears the images of former presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki.
De La Rue’s contract comes after the government took a 40 per cent stake in the multinational’s local subsidiary (De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited), paying £5 million (Sh654 million) in the transaction.
