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Priestly CBK boss says no to posh Muthaiga house and sleek cars


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, who took over as Central Bank of Kenya governor last week, will instead be housed in communal accommodation in Nairobi’s Loresho estate with his fellow members of Opus Dei (Latin 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.

MODESTY

Dr Njoroge, who is turning out to be a man of exemplary modesty, has also turned down an office-issued high end smart phone, a bevy of security guards and three cars.

Central Bank governors have at their disposal a Range Rover, Mercedes Benz and a VW Passat.

When he was being vetted by MPs before his appointment by President Uhuru Kenyatta, Dr Njoroge was asked why he did not own property in Kenya and was still single at 54 yet his monthly salary at the International Monetary Fund was Sh3 million a month.

“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 9th Central Bank governor said.

He told the MPs that his lifestyle was a matter of choice and there was nothing unusual about it.

WIFE

MPs approved his nomination, paving the way for his appointment, but not before making inappropriate offers to get him a wife.

In a country where appointment to public office is associated with opulence, demand for higher pay and motorcades, Dr Njoroge’s decision to pass up a chance to live in a house on two acres located in the city’s most exclusive suburb is a rare one.

Read the full story here.

SOURCE: Daily Nation