Commentaries

MPs' appeal to save giant cooperative

Ten Kisii MPs yesterday urged members of troubled Gusii Rural Savings and Credit Cooperative Society to use their forthcoming special annual general meeting to save it from collapse.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Mr Jimmy Angwenyi of Kitutu Chache said the meeting should be used to make sure 80,000-member society is properly managed. The Commissioner of Cooperatives, Mr Peter Mathanjuki, last week gave a notice of the meeting, scheduled for the Gusii stadium on Wednesday.

But the management committee has opposed it, saying that the official had no power to convene it. The MPs' call comes only days after the farmers moved to the High court seeking to set aside an earlier injunction restraining them from holding the AGM.

But on Friday, the High Court, sitting in Nairobi, granted an application by the farmers, through Kerosi and Company Advocates, to hold it. The court set aside an order earlier issued by the High Court in Nakuru barring the Commissioner of Cooperatives and the Nyanza Provincial Cooperatives Officer from holding the meeting. But the city High Court ruled that the meeting was vital to the farmers, and that the management committee had no reason to oppose it as they were free to attend it.