Imperial Bank depositors now resort to street action to push for refund

Imperial Bank head office at Westlands .PHOTO:BEVERLYNE MUSILI

A section of Imperial Bank depositors are now planning to go to the streets to demonstrate against the bank's directors after waiting in the dark for over six months.

Through a newly formed pressure group – the IBL Depositors Lobby Group – they have applied for a licence from the Gigiri police to hold what they describe as an Imperial Bank Ltd 'Protest Demonstration Rally' on the May 31, 2016. The lobby group, which describes itself as an informal group of ordinary people who were depositors at Imperial Bank before the lender was placed under receivership, says the protest will be used to express their suffering.

"There are many suffering depositors who are relying on our IBL Depositors Lobby Group to make progress in receiving back our funds," the letter to Gigiri Police reads in part. The protest comes at a time when the Central Bank of Kenya has raised the alarm that some of its employees have been threatened for investigating the theft at the lender.

But CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge has maintained that he would do what is necessary to get to the bottom of the scam at Imperial Bank that saw over Sh38 billion siphoned out of the bank through parallel banking. Dr Njoroge also said that the reason why the Imperial Bank case was taking too long to resolve was because of the hostility of the major shareholders.

Dr Njoroge has also accused the shareholders for being uncooperative unlike the owners of Chase Bank who were more willing to get to the table. The lobby group, which appears to be supporting the actions of the CBK, has also written to its members, asking them to turn up for the protest on the due date if they received the necessary approvals.

"We would like to inform you that we are in the process of organising a peaceful protest demonstration for all IBL-IR depositors, all depositors are suffering, we all need to be heard," the notice reads. It is not clear how many members the group has but it has established a social media page to push for its cause.

The 'peaceful' demonstration is expected to be held outside the bank's head office at Imperial Court, Westlands Road, from between 12pm to 3 pm. The lobby group says the objective of the demonstration is to protest against the directors who are yet to pump into the bank the Sh10 billion asked by the CBK.

"We have applied to the Kenya Police for a permit to hold a peaceful demonstration," the notice to members adds. The bank's chairman, Alnashir Popat, recently apologsed to the depositors of the bank and the bond holders, an apology that may have come a little too late for more than 50,000 customers who saw their money locked up after the scandal broke.

A forensic audit by FTI Consulting revealed shocking details of how eight members of one family that largely deals in the fish business conspired with the bank's top managers to siphon Sh38 billion from the bank in one of the biggest bank thefts in banking history.

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