Activist Okiya Omtatah filed a petition wanting judges to visit the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi to ascertain whether Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s statue is part of the building.
In his petition, Mr Omtatah accused Central Bank of Kenya and its Governor Patrick Njoroge of contravening Article 231(4) of the Constitution by retaining the portrait of Kenya’s first President on the new generation currency notes.
The High Court has today ascertained that the statue is indeed part of KICC, ruling that the image of late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta used on the new currency notes is not a portrait as had been alleged.
Justices Kanyi Kimondo and Asenath Ongeri said that Central Bank of Kenya has not breached the law in using the said image. According to Judge Kimondo, the said image in contention was a side view and not frontal and that there is another image of an individual in one of the other new currencies.
The court has said that there was adequate public participation in the printing of the new design implying that including Mzee Kenyatta’s image in the new currency was from an informed decision.
