Nairobi — The nominee for Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung'u found himself in a tight spot Tuesday as he tried to disentangle himself from a web of controversy that surrounded his 8-year tint at the helm of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
Njuguna told the National Assembly appointment committee that he was merely a victim of the criminal justice system in all the corruption allegations against him which he says were aimed at casting aspersions on his integrity.
Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi raised a question on the award of the currency printing tender to De La Rue company in which taxpayers lost an estimated Sh3 billion.
Njuguna was accused of actively participating in the controversial cancellation of the 2008 tender to print new generation bank notes.
Instead he said that it forced the firm to continue printing the old notes which was a violation of the contract occasioning losses to the taxpayers.
"I have been a victim of abuse of the criminal justice system. On that procurement tender was to ensure Njuguna is out of Central Bank of Kenya," Njuguna lamented.
"In the end it was not Central Bank that determined the De La Rue contract because it was there before I joined, so I was exonerated on that because I was involved in the contract" he added.
On the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel where Njuguna alongside the then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya are accused of selling the prestigious hotel to a Libyan investor at a throw away price far below the market price.
Njugana explained that they sold the 5 five star hotel at 2.8 billion where the taxpayers managed to make a profit of 3.1Million with the proceeds invested in Lamu Port.
"The government said the Central Bank of Kenya had done well because those proceeds were invested in Lamu Port,"Njuguna stated.
He faulted the Cockar commission on the sale of Grand Regency Hotel that indicted him saying it was a witch hunt to hound him out of office.
"I haven't even read that report... I was an agent of government and this was a government to government sale," Njuguna said.
Ndung'u also denied claims that his wife's Thailand holiday trip was funded by Imperial Bank stating that it was privately funded through an agent.
The former CBK Governor further stated that the Bank did not collapse during his tenure.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"Imperial bank did not collapse under my tenure as CBK governor. Regarding the whole issue of the Imperial bank and my wife's trip to Thailand, we paid an agent at the resort directly for that trip. I paid for that holiday for my wife," he stated.
Njuguna explained that Imperial Bank of Kenya collapsed in 2017 long after he left Central Bank of Kenya in March 2015.
"When the bank collapsed I was out of the country so it didn't collapse when I was the governor,"Njuguna stated.
"The trip to Thailand took place in 2014 and the agent of that we were paying him in advance and the details are there.I paid the holiday for my wife," he added.
It was alleged in court that former Central Bank of Kenya governor wife received gifts from the bank's former managing director, Abdulmalek Janmohamed, as part of a calculated scheme to co-opt the banking sector regulator into abetting a massive fraud.
Imperial Bank's shareholders, who are seeking to prevent the CBK from liquidating the bank, say Nancy Ndung'u at one time billed Janmohamed for her stay with a companion at a luxury resort in Thailand indicating the toxic relationship the regulator had with the bank.
