Kenya Planters’ Co-operative Union faults plan to elect officials
What you need to know:
- The elections could scuttle the plans to bring the union back into business.
- Principal Secretary Wilson Songa has asked governors in coffee growing areas to organise elections for the new board.
The board of Kenya Planters’ Co-operative Union is demanding that the Ministry of Industrialisation declares its interests in the elections it has called on August 31.
Speaking at the union’s Dandora plant on Thursday, the board said it was surprised by how the ministry was handling its revival.
“We want the Cabinet Secretary, the Principal Secretary and the Commissioner of Co-operatives to declare the interests they have in the elections that they have called without informing board members,” managing director Joseph Kioko said.
The elections could scuttle the plans to bring the union back into business since the funding that resulted in lifting of receivership was tied to the stability of the board’s tenure that ends in 2016, Mr Kioko said.
This, he added, will affect payment of farmers’ arrears for coffee delivered before 2009 and whose accounts are being verified at the moment.
“We’ve struggled to give confidence to the financiers. We were turned down by many, and just when we’re about to start operations, the ministry calls for elections,” Mr Kioko noted.
Principal Secretary Wilson Songa has asked governors in coffee growing areas to organise elections for the new board, which has sparked a leadership row.
