Gachagua urges Kenyans in diaspora to establish own bank

The Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua has urged Kenyans living abroad to consider establishing a diaspora-owned bank to reduce the fees and commissions they pay to financial institutions when sending money home.

Speaking during an engagement with business executives at Silo Modern Farmhouse in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, Gachagua said a diaspora-owned financial institution would enable Kenyans abroad to retain a greater share of the money they currently lose through banking charges.

“I’ve encouraged you to consider starting a diaspora bank because you collect too much money, and you lose too much money in fees and commissions to banks here,” Gachagua said.

He argued that owning a bank would allow Kenyans in the diaspora to turn the fees they currently pay into equity in a financial institution they own.

“If you owned a bank, and you have the necessary capital to start your own bank, those fees and commissions will be coming back to you. They’ll be part of your equity, and that is something that we want to encourage you to do,” he added.

Gachagua also called on Kenyans abroad to invest in private security services, proposing the establishment of licensed companies that would provide armed security to businesses and private individuals.

He said the move would help ease pressure on the country's police force, which he claimed was overstretched by the deployment of officers to guard VIPs, private residences and commercial establishments.

“For the longest time, we have had a strain on our manpower because too many of our police are guarding VIPs and their homes and businesses, others are guarding banks,” Gachagua said.

“We want to have private security that is armed, like it happens here in the United States and South Africa.”

He vowed that – if the opposition seizes power in the 2027 General Election - private security companies will be licensed to possess firearms and provide protection to corporates, banks and private citizens, allowing the police to concentrate on their core mandate of protecting the public.

The former Deputy President also reiterated his opposition to the government's affordable housing programme and pledged to abolish the housing levy if his political camp takes power.

Gachagua argued that the government should focus on providing infrastructure and essential services while leaving housing construction to private developers.

“William Ruto has killed the real estate business, when the government took over the construction of houses,” he said.

“This is the only country in the world where government is building houses for people. It’s not the work of government to build houses for people; the work of government is to provide services; put up good roads, provide water, electricity and security, and let the private enterprise do what they need to do.”

Gachagua cited the administration of the late retired President Mwai Kibaki as an example of how government investment in infrastructure could stimulate private-sector development in the housing industry.

He said Kibaki's administration facilitated real estate growth in Nairobi and its environs by opening up bypasses and improving infrastructure, allowing private developers to construct homes.

“How did Mwai Kibaki do housing in the city of Nairobi? He just opened up the bypasses, and the private sector built the houses,” Gachagua said.

On the housing levy, Gachagua dismissed concerns that abolishing the programme would lead to job losses in the construction sector.

“William Ruto is complaining that we have said we shall abolish the housing levy. Yes, we shall, because it’s unnecessary,” he said.

“He’s saying if we stop the housing programme, the people who are constructing the houses will be jobless. They will not, they will be employed by the private sector.”

Gachagua further alleged that the housing programme amounted to theft and questioned the government's capacity to utilise funds collected through the levy.

“The housing programme is just theft. Money that has been deducted from people’s salaries, the State Department of Housing has no capacity to absorb those funds,” he claimed.