By Wasike Elvis
Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich now says he will sign the cooperative Society Development Bill 2019 into law.
Speaking at Iten grounds during the Ushirika Day celebrations, Rotich who was then the Deputy Governor before his election win as County boss, said the bill will ensure more Ward funds are allocated to cooperative societies.
“The Elgeyo Marakwet County Assembly recently passed the Cooperative Society Development Bill 2019. My first assignment in office is to assent it into law to ensure that Cooperative societies gets more funds,” he said.
The Bill suggests an allocation of 2.5 percent of Ward Development Fund to Cooperative societies.
“It will be a revolving fund where members can borrow at low cost and it will also be mandatory for residents to join Saccos since it will be for their own good,” he added, urging youth to enroll in Saccos to reduce the dominance of old people.
He said it is the only way that youths could get funds to start their own businesses.
Dr Benson Kibore, Chief Officer for Livestock and Fisheries in Elgeyo-Marakwet said the only way Kenyans can extricate themselves from the yoke of abject poverty was through Saccos.
“The only way Kenyans can redeem themselves from poverty is through joining Sacco’s just like China, which used cooperatives to build a solid economy. Let us join Sacco’s and we will never be the same again,” he opined.
He said the recent report released by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) shows that Elgeyo-Marakwet is the fastest growing economy with a GDP of more than 145 billion shillings up from 40 billion courtesy of the cooperative movement.
“Regionally we have the best managed Sacco’s which have a lot of wealth and what we’ve done is to put systems and frameworks in place to ensure that all Cooperatives are able to do their Annual Delegates Meetings (ADM) in time and sort out challenges coming their way,” he said.
The County has over 170 cooperative societies.
“We will form cooperative Unions so that we can leverage their strength, their numbers, and volumes to negotiate for better prices and good buyers,” he added.
During the celebrations, the best Matatu Sacco was Kerio Prestige with the second position going to Trans valley Sacco.
The best performing coffee marketing Society was Kormut Farmers Cooperative Society while Turesia Farmers’ Cooperative Society took position two.
The best performing dairy marketing Cooperative went to Kapteren/Kapkoi Farmers Cooperative Society while Kamet dairy cooperative society came second.
The society with the moist activity diversification ventures went to Keiyo Housing Cooperative Society followed by Mosop Soy farmers.
The best society in provision of education went to Mefat Sacco while Prime Time Sacco took position two.
The dairy society with the highest rates of payments to members went to Kapteren/Kapkoi FCS while Metkei FCS was number two. The highest rates of payment to members in the coffee sub-sector went to Turesia FCS while Kormut FC was number two.
Urban Sacco with the highest rates of dividends went to Sochem Women Rural Sacco while Iten Women Rural Sacco was position two.
Best managed Cooperative Society trophy went to Sochem Women Empowerment Sacco while Elgeyo-Marakwet Youth Bunge took position two.
