Co-operatives CS Wycliffe Oparanya has ordered the management committee of Kangunu Coffee Co-operative Society in Mathioya, Murang'a county to step aside following complaints of alleged mismanagement.
The CS visited the cooperative days after farmers were teargassed as they protested against officials, whom they accused of embezzling their returns.
He directed the Commissioner of Co-operatives to start an inquiry on the financial accounts of the co-operative and organise elections in 14 days.
“On October 2, I want you to come back here and elect new officials. And from now on, you will no longer have five per cent of your earnings deducted,” Oparanya said.
The farmers narrated to the CS how they have been unable to hold genuine elections for more than a decade, leaving the officials holding positions indefinitely.
Edward Githua said every time they hold an annual general meeting, the cooperative engages non-members, who forcibly pass agendas and harass genuine farmers.
Farmers who are too vocal, he added, are chased away and denied the chance to sell their coffee through the cooperative society.
They further complained that for years, the co-operative has been deducting five per cent of their income as contributions to a sacco that they denied having formed.
Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo asked why the officials had allowed the co-operatives' structures to wear out despite deducting huge amounts of money from farmers.
He said he was appalled that the officials worked with police officers to teargas elderly farmers who were only agitating for their rights during protests.
The MP said he plans to write to EACC to have investigations conducted on the officials' extravagant lifestyles, which he said were funded by farmers’ money.
