Sessional Paper No. 05 of 2011 on Expanding the Enabling Environment for Sustainable Co-operative Development

Abstract

This Sessional Paper on Expanding the Enabling Environment for Sustainable Co-operative Development presents a policy framework for accelerating Kenya's co-operative growth in a dynamic and competitive global environment.: It replaces Sessional Paper No. 6 of 1997, on Co-operatives in a Liberalized Economic Environment that re-defined a new relationship between the Government and the co-operative movement emphasizing autonomy and independence of co-operatives and focused on creating an enabling policy and legal environment for co-operatives to actively engage in tackling the prevailing high levels of un-employment and poverty. Liberalization exposed cooperatives to competition for which they were ill-prepared rendering dormant some of them which hitherto had performed upstream marketing functions. Co-operatives had to grapple with operations at un-economical scales caused by sub-divisions as witnessed among coffee societies, Unfortunately, as a result of sudden Government withdrawal from its supervisory role, some cooperative societies' leadership seized the opportunity to confer upon themselves extraordinary powers to appropriate resources: they made poor investment decisions that led to non-performing assets and ventured into 'non-core areas which contributed to low returns· to members and pervasive indebtedness. Despite its shortcomings, liberalization created new opportunities for cooperative growth at national and regional levels.