Governor Wa Iria’s disputed Murang’a savings scheme folds

The controversial Murang’a County Investment Cooperative Society initiated by Governor Mwangi Wa Iria in 2014 for residents to jointly save and invest has been dissolved.

A gazette notice dated November 25, 2016 signed by Alice Mwendwa on behalf of the Registrar of Companies announced the dissolution.

Responding to the new development, Governor Wa Iria said campaigns from opponents of the scheme made residents lose faith in the project.

“There was nothing wrong with the company, only that it was subjected to bad politics by my political opponents. It is one of that classic case of a good project beneficial to our people being dragged into a propaganda war till it died,” Mr Wa Iria said.

“The people we were mobilising to save gave up and the company could no longer meet its legal working guidelines. Most accounts ran idle and there were no returns to be filed. Eventually, it ran into bad books of the regulator and it was dissolved,” he said.

However, Mr wa Iria says by 2015, members in the savings scheme had deposited Sh10 million that has since been withdrawn and invested in a piece of land on the outskirts of Murang’a Town.

BUY NEW ASSET

“The members who numbered 20 were patient and went on depositing their savings. When the management of the company informed them of the bad turn, they agreed to search for an asset to buy under an independent self-help group,” he said.

“Our noble idea was to match every shilling received from national government with an equal shilling contributed by us,” he said.

Murang’a is famous for successful investment groups.

The governor said politicians in the region at some point issued statements alluding to the initiative being another rip off pyramid scheme aimed at raising his campaign funds.

“Under such a hostile atmosphere, our objective of recruiting membership of over 100,000 people from Murang’a making a minimum monthly average savings of Sh3,000 translating to a total monthly savings of Sh300 million and an annual savings of Sh3.6 billion went up in smoke,” he said.

“To lose out big time were the low income earners whom we had looped into the scheme where they were required to save Sh1,000 monthly,” he said.

But Kiharu MP Irungu Kang’ata remains optimistic that the initiative was good for Murang’a people.

“The governor has an independent mandate which is derived directly from the people. Essentially, this means that the governor’s projects do not need to be vetted by either the senator or the woman representative,” said Mr Kang’ata.