Parliament approves appointment of CBK board directors

After close to two years, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) finally has a fully constituted board.

This follows the approval of the five nominees that had been fronted by President Uhuru Kenyatta by the National Assembly.

The board had only Mohamed Nyaoga who was appointed as chairman back in 2015.

The five board members are Ravi Ruparel, Nelius Kariuki, Samson Cherutich, Charity Selina Kisotu and Rachel Bessie Dzombo.

Mr Rupel currently works with Financial Sector Deepening Kenya as a senior policy advisor. FSD works towards ensuring financial inclusion.

Mrs Kariuki is the immediate former chairperson of the Kenya Re board where she served as a director and later chairwoman. She made headlines becoming the first woman to chair a board in Kenya.

Mr Cherutich is the current financial controller of Nairobi Hospital while Ms Kisotu has previously served as the chairperson of the National Social Security Fund.

Mrs Dzombo is the Executive Director of Danicha Investment Limited.

The CBK board is charged with creating policies, providing oversight of the bank’s strategy and ensures sound financial management.

There has been long standing concern that the absence of the CBK board would compromise monetary policy as the governor was left to implement policy changes without checks and balance.

Changes in the banking sector have also seen legislators and analysts alike push to have the board in place to ensure proper management of the regulator.

The board comes into place just two months after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the capping of interest rates.

Under the Central Bank of Kenya Act, the responsibility for determining the policy of the bank, other than the formulation of monetary policy, is given to the board of directors.

The board is expected to meet once every two months to review the bank’s performance, approve capital expenditure as well as monitor management decisions.

The board will also be expected to set up special committees specializing to ensuring the stability of the financial sector as a whole.

The board headed by Mr Nyaoga will also set CBK’s policies, review the performance of the governor and provide oversight over the regulator’s strategy and financial management.