Co-operatives and MSMEs Development CS Wycliffe Oparanya stood before SACCO leaders at Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives (KUSCCO).on 23 June, 2025, and delivered an upbeat progress report on the sector clean-up launched after the KSh 13 billion KUSCCO scandal.
He said investigative files have been handed over for prosecution and promised that “every shilling misappropriated will be tracked.”
“The new nine member KUSCCO board is now fully constituted and has been given a three year mandate to steer asset recovery, rebuild internal controls and transform the union into a lean national federation,” he said.
The board’s first assignments, he added, include tracing insider loans, harmonizing dividend policy and installing real time reporting systems across affiliate Saccos.
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Oparanya also updated delegates on the legislative front, noting that the Cabinet-approved Sacco Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed to Parliament on 11 March, will anchor a Deposit Guarantee Fund covering up to Ksh 100,000 per member and create a Central Liquidity Facility so SACCOs can lend to one another without turning to commercial banks. Draft regulations for both schemes, he said, “are ready for Treasury clearance.”
Turning to immediate risk controls, the CS said the three month freeze on registering new Saccos, imposed in May, remains in force while a five member expert committee completes a root and branch review of governance loopholes. Licensing will resume only after the new oversight architecture; shared services platform, liquidity facility and guarantee fund, is operational.
CS Oparanya reported tangible progress on asset recovery. Ksh 136 million has already been refunded to small deposit-taking Saccos through the sale of 32 surplus vehicles and several houses seized from former KUSCCO managers.
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He warned that additional seizures are under way and that culpable officials will face personal liability once ongoing cases are concluded.
He also reminding the movement that Saccos now command an asset base topping Ksh 1 trillion and must therefore meet the same prudential standards expected of banks.
The June 23 briefing, he stressed, marks the shift from firefighting to institutional reform, signaling that deposit insurance, inter-Sacco liquidity support and tighter governance will be in place before the end of FY 2025/26, restoring public confidence in Kenya’s cooperative finance model.
By Benedict Aoya
