On Friday 27 September (next week) the High Court of Kenya will decide whether the new Kenyan currency and the demonetization of the old 1,000 shillings banknote is illegal. More specifically the following 3 arguments were mentioned by Mr Omtatah who started the case:
1. Based on the Kenyan constitution, the Central Bank of Kenya should have consulted the public on the new currency, which it didn't. Therefore the new currency is illegal.
This argument was proven to be incorrect. Based on information posted on the forum by <k>, CBK did in fact consult the public for concepts for the new currency.
2. Three legal notices made by the Central Bank of Kenya should have been sent to the National Assembly within 7 days, which never happened. Because of that they by law became invalid. Two of the notices were respectively about the introduction of the new coins and the new banknotes. The third notice was about the demonetization of the old 1,000 shillings banknote on 1 October 2019.
Both CBK and the National Assembly acknowledged that the notices indeed were not sent (in time) to the National Assembly.
3. According to the Kenyan consitution, Kenyan currency may not bear the portrait of any individual. The new banknotes depict an image of the Kenyan International Convention Center with a statue of former Kenyan president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in front of it.
CBK has argued that the statue is part of the building. Omtatah said this was not the case as it was unveiled 1 year before the opening of the KICC. The judges went to see the statue themselves to be able to make a decision. During the visit they determined that there is 80 metres between the building and the statue.