Gusii Coffee Farmers to shun hawking coffee to unscrupulous traders

By Elizabeth Angira

Worth Noting:

• “I urge officials of cooperative societies to reduce unnecessary costs to farmers so that they can have confidence in them and deliver coffee at the societies to benefit them” Mogire said.
• He urged Sacco members to secure loans, invest in viable projects and repay them for the Sacco to realize profits, grow and pay them higher dividends.
• The Officer, flanked by Cooperative Directors- Mercy Pamella ( Kisii County), Ken Onyambu ( Nyamira), Sacco Chief Executive Officer, Isaac Omwenga and chairman, Hezekiah Nyasamba said the county had revoked a Business permit a foreigner was using to buy coffee from farmers and milled it in other areas.

Coffee farmers in cooperative societies affiliated to the Gusii Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (GCFCU)) have been asked to shun hawking coffee to unscrupulous traders.

Kisii county Agriculture and Cooperative Development Chief Officer, Geoffrey Mogire  said the traders were exploiting unsuspecting farmers, adding the vice was affecting the societies operations.

Addressing delegates during Wakenya Pamoja savings and credit cooperative Society’s ( Sacco’s) Annual Delegates  Meeting ( ADM), the officer noted the prices of coffee in the global market had increased and urged farmers to tend the crop well to boost their earnings.

“The foreigner came to Kenya as a tourist and he was using a Revenue Business Permit of his friend to buy coffee from farmers. We discovered and cancelled it” Mogire told the delegates at the Gusii Cultural Hall.

He said coffee farmers were members of the Sacco, stressing the hawking had reduced the amount of coffee farmers delivered at the cooperative societies, milling at the Union and reduced their savings and earnings from the Sacco.

Mogire said it was difficult for the farmers to secure loans from the Sacco if they hawked their coffee to traders who paid them peanuts, processed the coffee and sold it at exorbitant prices.

“I urge officials of cooperative societies to reduce unnecessary costs to farmers so that they can have confidence in them and deliver coffee at the societies to benefit them” Mogire said.

He urged Sacco members to secure loans, invest in viable projects and repay them for the Sacco to realize profits, grow and pay them higher dividends.

The Officer, flanked by Cooperative Directors- Mercy Pamella ( Kisii County), Ken Onyambu ( Nyamira), Sacco Chief Executive Officer, Isaac Omwenga and chairman, Hezekiah Nyasamba said the county had revoked a Business permit a foreigner was using to buy coffee from farmers and milled it in other areas.

Omwenga said the Sacco would disburse Ksh. 11.5 million dividends to members up from 4.5 million last year and attributed the increments to the support by members.

The Sacco’s chares increased from Ksh.499 m in 2020 to Ksh. 519 m in 2019, savings and deposits increased from 797m in 2020 to 811.5 m in 2021 and the loans disbursed increased from 384 m in 2020 to 496.1 last year.

Pamella said the Sacco’s Act had been amended and scrapped a term limit for the societies’ chairmen and urged the Saccos to amend their by-laws to comply with the Act.

“The Sacco’s By-laws have a term limit for the chairman which contradicts the cooperative societies Act. Delegates can pass resolutions to remove the chairman or allow him or her to continue” Pamella said.

She said the Sacco had recommended that the members share capital be increased from Ksh. 5000 to Ksh. 10,000 to  support the Sacco.