By Erick Nyayiera
There is need for a uniform legislation to help manage the operations and management of co-operative societies.
Kisumu County Co-operatives Commissioner Zephaniah Osok has observed that whereas the co-operative movement was fully devolved, counties have demonstrated lack of capacity to initiate and oversee improvement in the key sector.
He opined that a uniform legislation would compel the counties to put strategies of strengthening the co-operatives in their respective regions including availing incentives such as Cooperative Development Fund.
“Cooperative sector should have remained with the national government because there was great achievements and capacity building when we belonged to the national level,” Osok noted.
He pointed out that counties were coming up with their own legislation even without getting the necessary input from the key stakeholders on how best to manage the Saccos.
Most counties, he regretted, had no capacity including well trained staff that understand the movement.
He made the remarks in Kisumu city during the Sacco stakeholders’ consultation workshop on proposed regulations for specified Non-Deposit-Taking Saccos.
During the forum, Sacco leaders drawn from Nyanza region castigated the task force for imposing regulations on them without factoring their input.
“What we are experiencing here is merely a forum where we are being taken through what SASRA has decided. Our input was not taken when they were coming up with the regulations and now they expect us to rubber stamp, this is not fair on us as a region,” stated a Sacco leader from Bomachoge Sub-County.
