By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 2 February 2026 - In recent years, Kenya’s social media feeds and community celebrations have become stages for a striking and increasingly familiar spectacle: birthday celebrants adorned with banknotes, trees draped in currency, and festive spaces transformed into displays of cash.
What began as an expressive gesture of generosity and joy has gradually evolved into a normalised form of celebration.
But beneath the viral appeal, the trend has raised red flags at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which warns that such practices risk undermining the value and dignity of the national currency.
The ritual is visually arresting but symbolically loaded. Instead of conventional gifts, friends and family pin, tape or hang Kenya shilling notes on celebrants’ clothes or decorative trees, sometimes layering the money so heavily that the individual almost disappears beneath it.
Videos of these moments circulate widely online, drawing praise for their flamboyance and criticism for their excess.
Supporters see harmless fun and a public display of success; critics view it as wasteful and insensitive in a country grappling with high living costs and economic strain.
CBK’s concerns go beyond questions of taste. In recent public notices, the regulator has cautioned that using banknotes as decorative items—whether in “money bouquets,” on clothing or on trees—amounts to mishandling currency.
Notes are often folded, stapled, glued or exposed to weather, actions that damage them and shorten their lifespan. Replacing mutilated or unfit currency carries a cost to the state, a burden that ultimately falls on taxpayers.
On a larger scale, widespread misuse strains currency management systems and disrupts cash-handling operations across the banking sector.
More fundamentally, the central bank fears the symbolic consequences.
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Currency derives its power not just from legal backing, but from public trust and respect. When money is treated as ornamental or disposable, CBK argues, it risks being psychologically devalued. Such attitudes, if left unchecked, could erode the culture of responsible money use that supports financial stability. While the impact may not immediately register in inflation figures or exchange rates, the long-term effect on public perception matters deeply to monetary authorities.
The trend also reflects broader social tensions. Lavish birthday displays sit uneasily alongside persistent unemployment, rising household debt and widening inequality. For many observers, viral images of money-laden celebrations provoke discomfort, reinforcing the sense of a growing divide between those who can afford conspicuous consumption and those who cannot. In this context, the debate over cash decorations becomes as much about social values as it is about currency protection.
CBK has so far opted for education over enforcement. It has reminded the public that defacing or mutilating currency is an offence under Kenyan law, while stressing that it does not oppose giving cash gifts per se. Instead, the bank has encouraged alternative, less damaging methods—such as envelopes, vouchers or digital transfers. Notably, prosecutions linked specifically to celebratory displays of money have been rare, reflecting an awareness that aggressive enforcement could provoke backlash and resistance.
Yet the persistence of the trend suggests that warnings alone may not suffice.
Social media validation has a powerful effect: each viral clip reinforces the idea that such displays are aspirational and fashionable. Cultural practices, once entrenched, are difficult to reverse without offering compelling alternatives.
Without new narratives around celebration—ones that emphasise creativity, symbolism or digital gifting without turning cash into spectacle—the practice is likely to continue.
Ultimately, the controversy over money-adorned trees and clothing captures a broader tension in modern society: how to balance celebration, status and self-expression with responsibility in an age of digital exhibitionism.
CBK’s anxiety about currency devaluation may be subtle rather than immediate, but it underscores an important truth. Protecting the value of money is not only about managing interest rates and reserves; it is also about safeguarding the symbols, habits and attitudes that give currency its meaning in everyday life.
