Management committees running the various coffee cooperative societies in Machakos County, have been cautioned against mismanagement and plunder of farmers’ cash from the coffee proceeds.
Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi said on Friday, May 24, that the rampant reports of numerous cooperative societies in the county sinking into huge debts from financial institutions were worrying.
The DG, who addressed the members of Kwa Matingi Farmers Cooperative Society said many residents had been condemned to poverty due to corruption and mismanagement of the coffee societies.
“Majority of our farmers are wallowing in poverty because of deliberate mistakes of criminal nature perpetuated by the officials of coffee societies. We are putting on notice the management committees of all the coffee societies that firm legal action will be taken against those who run down these societies,” said the deputy governor.
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He warned that malpractices in the cooperative sector had contributed to a drop in coffee production and subsequent accumulation of debts from lenders.
Mwangangi insisted that DCOs and County Cooperative Officers (CCOs) are duty bound to ensure strict adherence to the law by all the society officials under their jurisdiction.
The deputy governor also appealed to national government for a debt waiver owed to coffee cooperatives societies in the county.
He said farmers in the region needed the waiver in order to start on a clean slate.
The deputy governor said the debt was small compared to what the national government had waived to farmers in other region across country.
“I am appealing to the national government to consider extending debt waiver to our coffee farmers in my county, as it happened to sugar and tea farmers in other parts of the country,” he added.
Key coffee producing in the county includes Machakos, Kangundo, Kwa Matingi and Kathiani.
By Gastone Valusi
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