Kenya Insights

Tag: Sasra

  • ‪List Of Licensed And Authorized SACCOs In Kenya For 2025‬

    ‪List Of Licensed And Authorized SACCOs In Kenya For 2025‬

    The Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) has published the list of licensed and authorized SACCOs in Kenya for 2025.

    SASRA categorized the SACCOs into three groups – those licensed to conduct deposit-taking business, those authorized for non-deposit-taking business, and those whose authorization has expired.

    178 SACCOs have been licensed to conduct deposit-taking business, having met the regulatory requirements, and are approved to operate from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025.

    On the other hand, 177 SACCOs have received authorization to operate non-deposit-taking Sacco businesses, and are permitted to conduct their specified business activities from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025.

    SASRA noted that two SACCOs did not apply for the renewal of their authorization before December 31, 2024, meaning their authorization was automatically revoked.

    The SACCOs, listed in Schedule III, are therefore prohibited from engaging in any regulated Sacco business from January 1, 2025.

    Attached below is a comprehensive list of all licensed and authorized SACCOs in Kenya for 2025.

    [pdf-embedder url=”https://cms.kenyainsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Kenya-Gazette-Vol-CXXVIINo-15-1-1-36-2-1.pdf”]

  • End Times For Mombasa Port Sacco.​

    End Times For Mombasa Port Sacco.​

    Trouble is brewing at Mombasa Port Sacco between Saccos Regulatory Authority, delegates, management and the board of directors. This has been occasioned by the greed of the directors, CEO, poor governance and administrative lapses.

    Worsening the matter is the fact that the county cooperative officers in Mombasa Port Sacco Nelson Nyoro and Lina Nafuodo are actors in the same play. The problems began with the resignation of key officers of the Sacco who were perceived to be contenders for the post of chief executive officers of Sacco as the current CEO should have retired on December 31 2021 but managed to falsify documents indicating that he was due to retire in July 2022.

    The heads of units who resigned were the head of information technology, The head of underway human resources, head of credit and at the time of writing this report, the of the CE head of audit has already presented his resignation letter. What could be the genesis of such action of which Sasra has not taken any action? Key issues are involvement of the board and CEO in procurement issues, recent recruitments in the Sacco where the relatives of the board members have secured jobs, Sacco tender committees whereby key officers are permanently in the committee led by the CEOs hatchet man the head of finance.

    The recent merger/acquisition of Kivuko Sacco and payment of over Sh21 million to Kivuko by the board was flagged by the auditor. It is worth to note that following the absorption of some members of Kenya Ferry into the mainstream Kenya Ports Authority, some members of the Sacco voluntarily opted to move to Mombasa Port Sacco.

    The board in its greed decided to lie to delegates that the Sacco is also set to acquire Kivuko Sacco after its members were transferred to KPA as their employer Kenya Ferry Services Ltd was dissolved. Kivuko Sacco has about 1,500 members and customers, which will boost the giant Sacco’s membership. “The acquisition discussions are ongoing with the guidance of the county co-operative office. If acquired, our Sacco will benefit from growth in membership, loan portfolio, and deposits,” said Alfred Jaka, chairman of management board during an annual delegates meeting.

    Problems of Mombasa Port Sacco started with the elections of the delegates who are divided into zones and each zone elects directors from each zone. This is where we have the caliber of directors who cannot speak nor write in English but are elected based on how much they spend. The board is led by Alfred Konde who claims to be a pastor.

    The vice-chairman is now Ben Juma, who was indicted in a recent special audit been report of having taken loans 12 times the fo of in one year. Already investigations are underway. The treasurer is Gervais Kivuk Mwole, who retired but with the help of the CEO Anyasa Ondiek remain in the board. He is the defacto head of all Sacco activities and the problems in the office Sacco.

    The secretary is the CPE raised drop-out Isabela Mushila, a one- memb time athlete whose role is to fill the paid position that was left by Susan Ayoyi being are th whereby her children have been mentioned as having taken loans and not repaid. Other members are William Ouma who has deposed as the vice chairmanfor demanding audits and a tough stance on the percieved corruption in all sectors in the sacco.

    Emily Chamba whose known contribution to the board is to spread rumors about directors not in their team, Rael Munywoki whose conflict is having her child as a supplier in the board.

    Then there is Gekone Obonyo, the orphan whose role at the board is to seek for training all the time. The supervisory committee queries is headed by Esha Juma and has Fam Katiba David and Ondigo George manage as members.

    The last piece of the puzzle is Dedan Ondieki who was back, th due to retire on December 31 2021 and managed to convince the board that approval had been granted by sasra to remain in employment.

    Ondiek is a CEO on a permanent basis and with the help of chairman Jaka, the county cooperative director Nyoro, and an official from Sasra planning to have him on five years contract after retirement. Ondieki who is 65 years old wants to be in the Sacco and ensure whoever takes over from him will play by their book. What is most surprising is that he claims the CEO of Sasra is a personal friend and nothing will happen to him.

    Kenya insights can now report that the issued at Mombasa Port Sacco can only be addressed by Sasra, EACC and the  DCI. Key of the matters that have took audit been pointed out in some reports are the following: Payment of Sh21m to a defunct Kivuko Sacco. This was against the advice of Sasra however it is believed that it was secretly approved and money paid whereby officials of the defunct of all Sacco and the county cooperative officer are aware.

    Questions being raised is why money collected from members from Kivuko which was paid to Mombasa Port by KPA is being sent to a defunct account? Who report are the beneficiaries? What role did Sasra play in this?  Operation of an account office incidentals whereby whenever Sasra officials come around money is withdrawn.

    One such withdrawal was Sh150,000 withdrawn under the guise of business partners official meeting. To cover their tracks, it is collected by board the secretary of the CEO and handed eover to the treasurer and CEO. The last one was done on February 2 2022.

    A total of over Sh5m have passed awarded through this act. Approval of audited accounts for payment of dividends is collected by the treasurer as agreed by the board. This is to ensure any queries are not settled before then.

    Family Bank Limited has allegedly managed to bribe to have deposits maintained in the bank. Some times back, the top brass of the bank called for a breakfast meeting whereby the board members were enticed to remove the deposits kept at Sidian Bank.

    At the moment, the chairman, CEO, treasurer and secretary signed off monies to the bank and do collect a monthly stipend from the bank. Attemps are being ,made to increase deposits to Shi billion which will put the Sacco at a risk. This was tried at Bandari Sacco where their attempts were rebuffed.’ The compromised loan portfolio of the Sacco. A recent forensic audit report of Mombasa Port Sacco of December 29 2021 conducted by Mutau Njoroge and Associates raised various serious issues that put the regulator to task on how they conduct be their surveillance audits.

    One issue ne raised was how one board member ve took 15 loans in one year. How was it approved it came out the member was also chair of the credit committee? Several delegates are major defaulters he in the Sacco with some of them not ed paying loans from 2016, Children of some board members and a act spouse of a senior officer who took a loan in 2016 have not been repaid.

    Some board members and staff om were receiving loans fraudulently. Recommendations to the report were is Disciplinary action be taken on ho some staff and CEO as per the HRA did policy. To cover this the CEO through conniving with some members of staff fice had three staff dismissed to create A the room for hiring his relatives in A: is sensitive positions in the Sacco.

  • Saccos Regulator On The Spot Over Sh200M Project

    Saccos Regulator On The Spot Over Sh200M Project

    Auditor General has raised a red flag on a Sh200 million project by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) that failed to take off since February 2020 todate with no written explanation.

    The authority also spent Sh25 million on a 10-member board raising concerns on how the board officials were compensated and how many meetings are held for the board fees to total Sh25 million a year. The project involved the implementation of a Risk Based Supervision System to help in the regulation of its members.

    Auditor general says the examination of available records revealed that the authority signed a contract with three local firms for the supply, installation, configuration, customisation, testing and commissioning and maintenance of risk-based supervision system.

    Electronic document

    It also entailed electronic document management system and related hardware system at a contract sum of Sh206 million. “The commence date for the project is February 21, 2021 for a period of six months with an expected completion date of August 20, 2020,” the auditor’s report says.

    The project timelines indicate that the project should have at deployment stage four months after commencement of the contract. However there is no evidence of any such progress. “However, no documentary evidence has been provided for verification to confirm the project implementation status and ascertain whether the project objectives will be met since the contract period has expired,” said the Auditor General in the report. “In addition, the management has not provided explanations to the low level of budget absorption,” the report said adding tha the value for was therefore not obtained on the project.

    Delayed the project

    It is, however, worth noting, that project was to start just at the time when Covid-19 was announced to have been reported in the country and this may have delayed the project.

    Companies, however, continued to work all the same and therefore it is not clear how a an auditor’s report that came out in November 2021 failed to capture any activity on that project. The system was meant to help reduce risks in the management of Saccos across the country which are prone to mismanagement and loss of public funds.

    Kenyans have lost millions of shillings to collapsed Saccos due to inadequate oversight hence the need for enhanced regulation and risk management. The authority made Sh477 million in revenues in the year ending in June 2020 up from Sh371 million at a similar period the previous year after increasing the fees they charge Saccos.

  • Palm-greasing Corrodes Sasra CEO Recruitment​.

    Palm-greasing Corrodes Sasra CEO Recruitment​.

    It is barely a week since Kenya insights dug  into the status quo of the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) CEO recruitment exercise that has since been marinated with money bags for bribery of the board as the deep state cartels within are using their resources at disposal to fix in acting CEO Paul Njuguna whose unorthodox as per the disgruntled staffs within – testifies that it only favors the cartels.

    Njuguna is at the helm of proximity to grasp the power and already thinks he already wield it. Peter Njuguna took over from  John Mwaka for the CEO position. Mwaka is said to had been brought in as part of the dream sanity team of former CS for Industry, Trade and Co-operatives Adan Mohammed following his war against the corrupt agency. On this ground, when Mwaka took over from his predecessor Carilus Ademba who was ousted by CS who refused to extend his term – Mwaka became ​ruthless with the rotten eggs within the agency.

    Ademba was shown the door despite frantic maneuvers by cartels within the board who ensured within their means that Ademba was again recommended for a renewal of his contract at the authority.

    Therefore, the corrupt SASRA board had to unconditionally get back to the drawing board in search of a ‘Co-operating’ CEO after their plans to keep Ademba failed and from his fate, came Mwaka who was the then manager in charge of policy, research and development at the authority. He replaced Ademba in acting capacity. But it was Njuguna at the time who was in the best suitable position as Chief Manager Sacco supervision at SASRA who enjoyed the profile and immense power next to the CEO but in terms of integrity, he wasn’t the right person for the CEO position being that CS Adan was after sanity of the agency by all means and didn’t want mole on his way.

    Now with the absence of CS Adan, Njuguna is flocking together with his fellow birds, the board and cartels and nobody expects much in his tenure but the worst. 

    He is said to have kept on bragging how he has managed to pocket some board members including the chairman, by making sure that they come to his office weekly. Meaning that they draw per diem and sitting allowances on a weekly basis to ensure that they will favour his confirmation for the position. A powerful position in such a financial industry.

    Njuguna is said to have fashioned himself as a well-connected man and surprised many when he recently confessed how he uses a Kenya Power PS Eng. Joseph Njoroge to wire money to CS Peter Munya.  Those in the know say that the party was partially funded by rich Njuguna’s uncle who has business interest in mining industry.

    As Njuguna goes about his business , it’s evident that he has really tried to raise money to satisfy the board chairman.

    Recently staff were ordered to do a report so that Njuguna could sack mwalimu Sacco board and CEO who refused to donate him money in kickback so as to be favored by his reign when he’s permanently confirmed in the CEO position.

    Those delegated to carry out the witch-hunt through negative report said recounted how they struggled to do such a report since the issues are historical yet they had to impress the boss let they equally get fired, demoted or transferred to other departments which are less lucrative.

    ‘We are hoping that someone would hear our cries but apparently it looks like we have no one to run to,’ one of the staff lamented. Njuguna’s uncle in question gives him money and where it’s not enough he will send the staff to harass Saccos so that he can be able to solicit funds from them as a way of securing their survival.

    The CEO many times struggles to accommodate his demands and recently, he blatantly refused to pay a supplier who could not bribe him. The staff noted that they have an incompetent board which is highly compromised and a CS who is conflicted.

    SASRA board needs an overhaul to bring sanity to the agency with Njuguna source of the insanity be investigated since the agency controls the economy of this country in a bigger portion and corruption isn’t healthy for the Saccos and their clients who will be feeling the pinch the authority’s ruthless sanctions.