Prime Minister Raila Odinga in statement read at the Banking Survey Awards asked commercial banks to cut down their lending rates to 16%. The premier noted that the government mobilized MPs to vote against capping of interest rates and asked the banks to show appreciation by lending to the people at comfortable rates.

Odinga asked banks to also support businesses and their growth and not only focus on making profits by reaping highly from the interests they collect on loans.“The government was able to mobilise legislators to avoid capping rates, but take this as a warning that the people are not happy with interest rates above 16 per cent,” said Mr Odinga in a speech read on his behalf by Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno on Tuesday.

Commercial banks won a long time battle with legislators when MPs voted against an amendment to have interest rates on loans capped and a base put on rates given to interest earning deposits. The amendment had proposed to cap interest rates on loans at at most 4 percentage  points more than the 18% Central Bank Rate, which would be at 22% and put a base on deposit interests at 12.6%.