How a Goldenberg-like scandal had been plotted in Uhuru's last term - CBK boss Patrick Njoroge

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Dr Patrick Njoroge has claimed that during the final term of President Uhuru Kenyatta's reign, there was a plot by some government personnel in the finance docket to sabotage the country's economy as was the case during the infamous Goldenberg scandal.

Dr. Njoroge revealed that a section of government officers had infiltrated the public coffers with the intention of embezzling funds in the foreign exchange department but the CBK management has since managed to deal with.

Despite not mentioning the culprits for what he said was a lack of distinctive evidence, he said that CBK managed to get wind of the scheme and was able to stop it thus preventing a similar loss like the 1990s Goldenberg scandal that led to a loss of about 10 percent of the country's GDP.

"In the last two to three years, we have people who were again trying to bring us back to Goldenberg. if you remember what was happening in Goldenberg, this is what some of the people are pushing towards. I don't want to get into details because they will ask me where is the proof, and I will say I don't have proof, am not DCI," Njoroge said.

The CBK boss was speaking on Monday during an induction exercise for Members of Parliament.

He also pointed out that the economic challenges such as the inflation witnessed in the country during the COVID period could not entirely be blamed on the pandemic as the public was hoodwinked to believe. According to the Dr. Njoroge some rogue traders working in cahoots with industry players engineered the economic crisis.

The CBK boss, however, intimated that even though they were able to stop the plot, not all those involved were brought to book.

"The hype, the pressures had nothing to do with what was happening in the markets. What was happening is that we did have some of the rogue traders, in particular, banks, and they were working to do their thing, so we went after those and dealt with some of them," he said.

"You cannot kill every mosquito in the room...we were in a particular kipindi, everything was politics...sanity has resumed."

According to Njoroge, the nation is now moving on the right direction after the conclusion of the August elections.