INDEPENDENT MIND
“Totally
devoid of ego and instinctively averse to self-advertisement” is how a
senior Treasury official and long-serving central banker described him.
His
style brings to public service a rare quality of humility and an
aversion to the trappings of power and opulence.
During
vetting Dr Njoroge demonstrated an independent mind, taking a different
position to what MPs were pushing and also going against the government
position on some issues.
He was, for example,
forthright that he considers Kenya’s external borrowing excessive,
saying the country must be careful in considering more debt and where
the money was going.
This contradicted the National Treasury position, which is that the country’s borrowing is healthy and within the limits.
He
also dismissed proposals by MPs to form a government bank to provide
cheaper loans and bring interest rates down or simply introduce
legislation to control bank lending rates.
“I think it
would be a big mistake to even think that we can control interest rates
through legislation. It will not work. That is why we moved from price
control. Commercial banks just need to get confident to move ahead with
market-based solutions that are sensitive for their businesses like
control on inflation. This is something we have done in other countries
by assuring the banks that the economy is under control, we will come up
with a plan that is acceptable to all,” said Dr Njoroge.The man in charge of Kenya’s money has turned down the offer to live in an expansive home in Nairobi’s Muthaiga and ride in a motorcade.
Dr Patrick Ngugi Njoroge, will instead be housed in communal accommodation in Nairobi’s Loresho estate with his fellow members of Opus Dei (Latin for "work of God"), an institution of the Catholic church.
The
institution teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that
ordinary life is a path to sanctity. Most of its members are lay people,
with secular priests under a bishop.
When
he was being vetted by MPs before his appointment by President Uhuru
Kenyatta, Dr Njoroge was asked why he does not own property in Kenya and
is still single at 54 yet his monthly salary at the International
Monetary Fund was Sh3 million a month.
A MATTER OF CHOICE
“Yes
I don’t have a single asset here in Kenya and this is where I am at
this point and it doesn’t mean that this how it will be forever. I
subscribe to being very deliberate about that. This is my economic model
and may be years after retirement, I would want to invest in other
things. That should not mean I have any financial inabilities. It comes
with the profession,” the country’s ninth Central Bank governor said.
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