Co-ops are our road to Canaan, says Waithaka

Nyandarua Governor Daniel Waithaka Mwangi believes that solving problems in the dairy and potato sectors will take his people to “the promised land”.

Most of those who seek audience with him each day complain of challenges in marketing either potatoes or milk. He feels the challenges can be solved through the formation of farmers’ cooperative societies.

Mr Waithaka says he would strive to revive dormant societies and help start new ones. “It is only through cooperative societies that our people can be empowered socio-economically.” He was speaking in his Ol Kalou office Wednesday.

“My administration has initiated important steps to revive the cooperative sector in order to protect farmers. We have also ventured in the area of savings and credit societies and have partnered with the private sector to create incentives necessary for the growth of these movements.”

The county, according to Mr Waithaka, boasts of 110 cooperative societies in farming, savings and credit, housing and investment areas.

The region has 50 saccos, 33 dairy societies, nine housing and investments cooperatives, four horticulture-based societies, two investment societies and 12 rural cooperative societies. The total membership is 95,555, with a combined turnover of Sh929.7 million, the governor says.

Last year, savings mobilisation amounted to Sh3.8 billion, with 60 per cent of the money loaned to members for development, especially in real estate and transport industries. The rest was borrowed for other needs such as education and medical expenses.

Dairy societies earned Sh1.5 billion from the sale of 49,676,930 litres of milk last year, says the governor.

Waithaka’s dream

Mr Waithaka’s dream is to see Nyandarua people use the societies as their vehicles to economic growth. He challenges existing societies to move to bigger investments, saying those in matatu business should aim for air transport and others for mega shopping malls.

He believes the impact and benefit of cooperative movements will be felt when their membership reaches at least a third of the county population.
Currently, 98,000 people are members of societies against a population of about 700,000 people.

“It is unfortunate that less than 100,000 people in Nyandarua are in cooperatives. My intention is to have at least 250,000 people as members in the next two years,” states the governor, who expects the cooperative movement to drive the county towards industrialisation.

The societies, if strengthened, will also enable farmers to realise enough income for modern farming and to embrace green energy through use of biogas from zero-grazing, according to the county boss.

He challenges the existing societies to aim at developing from ordinary lending institutions to major investors with mega stores like those in developed countries.

“We need cooperatives that can open stores to sell motor vehicles here so that people stop going to Nairobi or Nakuru to buy cars,” the governor says.