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{
    "id": 1495565,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1495565/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 449,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Firstly, I want to thank the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, for the immense work it has done together with the Ministry, in making sure that we get this law that is extremely important. This law has covered many areas that have a challenge of governance, management, naming and all the loop holes that existed in the cooperative sector. However, even as we do this, I will definitely be bringing in amendments to this Bill. Some of the amendments will be to undertake a complete vetting of all the County Commissioners of Cooperatives across the country and all the Ministry staff that have been dealing with cooperatives. As we talk about the problem we have had before, where there was mismanagement of cooperatives, lack of transparency and loss of public money, it could not have been possible without the collusion of those crooks in the cooperative sector. It is a fact that they were colluding with the Ministry officials. Therefore, even if we change the law and we do not change those corrupt officials in the Ministry of Cooperative, Development and Marketing, nothing is going to change. I can say this without fear of contradiction. We had a crisis in the last three to four years in Uasin Gishu County with the Keiyo Housing Cooperative where a bunch of four persons decided that they had the power to even alienate the building that belonged to Keiyo Cooperative Housing. They were able to do so, continued to collect the rent and mismanage the building. This is all in the full view of the Commissioner of Cooperatives in Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Markwet counties, because that is where they were domiciled. In fact, I still have the messages that I exchanged with Commissioner Obonyo here in Nairobi because he was part of it. When we told him that these people had been voted out by the members of the cooperative, he refused to supervise the transfer of the crooked officials that the members had rejected to give room to the new officials that had been elected. It took the intervention of the former Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Chelugui, whom I went to see together with the members of the cooperative. We went to beg him to save their hard-earned investment which was invested as far back as my grandfather. At that time, it was only with the intervention of the Cabinet Secretary and that of the Principal Secretary then, Mr. Kilemi. I do not know if he is still the Principal Secretary. They were the only two who eventually reined in on their rogue commissioners."
}