US Embassy in Nairobi to stop accepting old Sh1,000 banknotes
The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi has urged those applying for visas at their consulate that they would stop accepting the old generation Sh1,000 banknotes after next week, September 12, 2019 ahead of the October 1, deadline.
The old generation bank notes will cease to be legal tender on September 30.
The embassy, in a notice on Thursday through their Twitter account, said the decision was because of the directive by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) that the old notes will no longer be legal tender.
NOTICE: The U.S. Embassy’s consular section will not accept old KSH 1,000 notes after September 12, 2019. This is due to the directive of the @CBKKenya that 1,000 shilling notes of the old design will no longer be legal tender on October 1, 2019. pic.twitter.com/z2ZoKeWV6T
— U.S. Embassy Nairobi (@USEmbassyKenya) September 5, 2019
In June, just days after the new generation currency was unveiled, the US embassy had announced that they would not be accepting the new banknotes, but retracted the statement a day later and said they will be accepting both the old and new Kenyan banknotes.
DEVELOPING PROCEDURES
At the time, the embassy explained that it would not accept the new generation banknotes as they were still developing procedures to accept them.
CBK unveiled the new generation banknotes on Madaraka Day as part of constitutional requirements as well as a measure to curb fraud and money laundering.
The lesser bills of Sh500, Sh200, Sh100, and Sh50 will, however, be accepted by the embassy as per the CBK directive.
During the launch, CBK Governor Prof Patrick Njoroge said Kenyans have until September 30 to exchange any Sh1,000 notes, which will thereafter cease to be legal tender.
“All the older Sh1000 series shall be withdrawn. All persons have until October 1, 2019 to exchange these notes, after which the older ones will cease to be legal tender,” he said.
However, the governor said that the Sh50, Sh100, Sh200 and Sh500 notes will be phased out slowly.