Kenya’s cooperative movement is widely celebrated as one of Africa’s greatest development success stories. Cooperative societies have transformed livelihoods through savings and credit, agricultural marketing, housing, transport, dairy, fisheries and manufacturing.
Yet beneath these achievements lies a challenge that receives little public attention but has profound consequences for millions of members: silo competition, where officers guard their assigned societies instead of working together with colleagues.
Cooperative officers are the backbone of the supervisory system. They register societies, inspect books of accounts, advise management committees, resolve disputes, oversee elections, facilitate audits, educate members and ensure compliance with the Cooperative Societies Act and regulations. Their work determines whether a cooperative society flourishes or collapses.
Unfortunately, many county governments are grappling with an acute shortage of cooperative officers. In several counties, one officer is expected to supervise dozens of societies spread across multiple wards, often without adequate transport, fuel or operational budgets.
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The staffing shortage has created another problem that is quietly undermining service delivery. Instead of sharing responsibilities and supporting one another, some officers have developed territorial attitudes toward societies assigned to them.
A senior cooperative officer in western Kenya, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly, described the situation as an invisible wall. He said that once a society has been allocated to an officer, it becomes almost private property.
Even if members urgently require assistance and the assigned officer is away on leave, training or official duty, colleagues hesitate to step in, for fear of being accused of interfering with another officer’s jurisdiction.
According to the officer, societies sometimes postpone annual general meetings, elections, loan approvals or dispute resolution simply because the designated officer is unavailable. He added that members do not understand internal office politics, and only know that government has failed to serve them.
A cooperative officer from the Nyanza region observed that the problem goes beyond territorial boundaries. He said some officers have specialised knowledge in cooperative finance, governance, information and communications technology (ICT) systems or legal compliance, but supervisors sometimes discourage them from assisting colleagues, so expertise remains locked within individuals rather than shared.
He argued that this culture ultimately disadvantages societies, noting that the cooperative movement is meant to promote education and mutual assistance, yet sometimes practises the opposite.
Several officials interviewed pointed to another sensitive issue: the protection of underperformance.
A retired county cooperative administrator noted that professional competition should encourage excellence, but unhealthy rivalry often produces the opposite. He said some officers avoid consulting colleagues because asking for help may be interpreted as weakness, while others fear exposing knowledge gaps, so mistakes continue while experienced officers remain underutilised.
He added that younger officers entering the service frequently struggle because structured mentorship programmes are largely absent, and that new officers should accompany experienced colleagues during inspections and inquiries rather than working independently.
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Officials from several cooperative societies also expressed concern over inconsistent interpretation of cooperative laws and policies. A chairperson of a farmers’ cooperative in the Rift Valley said one officer advises members one way while another gives completely different guidance, leaving members confused because there is no harmonised approach.
According to the official, coordinated supervision would improve confidence among societies and reduce unnecessary disputes.
Another savings and credit cooperative organisation (SACCO) official from Nairobi observed that collaborative inspections often produce better outcomes. Whenever two or three officers conduct inspections together, they identify more governance weaknesses and provide practical solutions.
Experts argue that the challenge is organisational rather than personal. County cooperative departments often lack formal mechanisms for knowledge sharing, peer review and joint field assignments. Performance assessment tends to focus on individual jurisdictions instead of collective departmental results.
This situation contradicts the very philosophy upon which cooperatives were founded. The seven internationally recognised cooperative principles emphasise voluntary membership, democratic control, member participation, autonomy, education, cooperation among cooperatives and concern for community. Equally important is the spirit of collaboration that should guide those entrusted with supervising the movement.
The shortage of personnel compounds the challenge. As the number of Saccos, housing cooperatives, dairy societies and investment cooperatives continues to increase, many counties have not recruited additional officers to match the expanding workload.
The consequences are becoming increasingly evident. Annual inspections are delayed. Disputes remain unresolved for months. Elections are postponed. Financial irregularities may go undetected. Committee members receive inadequate governance training, while struggling societies fail to receive timely technical support.
The solution lies not merely in increasing staffing but in transforming organisational culture. County governments should recruit additional cooperative officers to reduce workloads and improve access to professional services.
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Departments should institutionalise joint inspections, rotational assignments, peer learning forums, technical working groups and mentorship programmes. Officers should be encouraged, and rewarded, for sharing expertise rather than guarding it.
Performance indicators should measure departmental effectiveness instead of individual territorial control. Digital knowledge repositories, standard operating procedures and regular professional development workshops can also help harmonise supervision across counties.
An experienced cooperative commissioner remarked during the interviews that the movement’s greatest resource is not the number of officers it employs but how effectively they work together, and that cooperative officers should demonstrate cooperation before asking societies to do the same.
Kenya’s cooperative movement has survived economic crises, political transitions and changing financial landscapes because its foundation has always been collective action. The same philosophy must now guide those responsible for supervising it.
Success in cooperative supervision should never be measured by how many societies an officer controls, but by how effectively officers collaborate to strengthen governance, accountability and member service. When cooperative officers collaborate, societies prosper. When they compete in silos, it is ultimately the millions of Kenyan farmers, workers, traders and savers who pay the price.
By Xavier Lugaga
The writer is a cooperative practitioner, governance consultant and lecturer in cooperative management.
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