Cooperatives and MSME Development Cabinet Secretary (CS) Wycliffe Oparanya has urged counties in the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) to strengthen cooperative structures and embrace digital systems.
He also called on them to jointly pursue financial reforms to unlock regional economic potential ahead of next month’s cooperative conference in Kisumu.
Speaking during a media breakfast meeting in Nairobi, Oparanya cautioned that the bloc risks lagging behind other parts of Kenya if it does not aggressively reorganise its cooperative sector.
“Unless you strengthen your cooperative movement, you will not succeed. The economy of our people here depends on having people together, enjoying economies of scale.
Other regions have moved forward. We must organise our people in cooperatives if we are to empower them,” he said.
The CS revealed that Kenya is set to operationalise a new Cooperative Act after years of policy stagnation, saying the bill has passed both Houses of Parliament and is headed for mediation to resolve final clauses.
He said the new law will clearly define the functions of national and county governments in cooperative development and introduce governance safeguards to curb past abuses.
“We will have a new cooperative act that addresses challenges that have been faced by the movement. For 15 years we tried to amend the old Act without success. Now we have political support and the opportunity to move forward,” he said.
Oparanya stressed that cooperative reforms must be backed by financial discipline and consolidation, noting the proliferation of small SACCOs has undermined the region’s financial muscle.
He cited United SACCO with more than 430,000 members, as a model of scale and efficiency.
He challenged western Kenya counties to tap into national cooperative and MSME financing facilities, saying not a single SACCO from the bloc had applied for funds meant to expand digital systems and value-chain infrastructure.
“This is a wake-up call. Money is here. Our people can access it. We must use this opportunity and change our lives,” he said.
Turning to regional value chains, the CS emphasised the need to revive competitiveness in key sectors, including fisheries, sugar, cotton and emerging agribusiness.
He called on counties to mobilise producer groups and leverage the Kisumu conference to formalise partnerships.
Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o echoed the call for financial scale and better infrastructure to support cooperatives, recalling earlier efforts to establish a regional bank that stalled due to bureaucratic hurdles.
“We must be ambitious in improving infrastructure so that our cooperatives can be interlinked,” he said, adding, “At one point we had raised funds for a regional bank, but approvals failed. This generation must succeed where we did not.”
He added that collective financial systems would help counties secure better lending rates and support development programmes, saying regional cooperation remains the strongest strategy for empowerment.
Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda said youth must be fully integrated into cooperative systems to expand market innovation and value addition across sectors such as fisheries, sugarcane, tea and cotton.
He noted that when people pull together, it is easier than when someone is doing it alone.
Ojienda said the Lake Region, despite being rich in agriculture and blue economy resources, has not fully benefitted from cooperative structures. He encouraged full participation in the Kisumu forum to build a unified regional agenda.
“We hope together we will get this to where it is supposed to be,” he said.
Nairobi County Chief Officer for Cooperatives George Musembi outlined the thematic areas expected to shape the Kisumu summit, among them financial inclusion, youth and gender participation, sustainable agriculture and blue economy development, climate action, cooperative education, digital transformation and market access.
“We want cooperatives to exchange ideas, to share experiences so that we take best practices for development,” Musembi said, adding, “Digital transformation is at the centre of transforming cooperatives.”
He said the summit will discuss cooperative capacity and propose a regional declaration focused on industry partnerships, climate resilience, cooperative digitisation and cross-border trade.
“This will be a final document to be adopted by governors in the region,” he noted.
LREB leaders urged full governor attendance to ensure coordinated decisions, saying the bloc must speak with one voice to attract investment and funding.
The Kisumu conference, expected to bring together regional governors, MPs, cooperative leaders and development partners, aims to strengthen policy alignment, boost youth-led enterprise and accelerate cooperative-driven economic transformation across the bloc.
By Mary Ndanu
