Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-08-01)
The current state of the economy creates the right condition for starting a food cooperative. The cost of food in recent months has been dictated by various factors which have converged to dictate higher prices, a cost ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-05-02)
In the past week, the Kenya Society of Professional Cooperators held its annual general meeting. On the agenda was election of leaders. Like the professional body, election of leaders for the cooperatives is a regular agenda item.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-07-04)
A recent UN resolution, A/77/L.60, describes the social and solidarity economy (SSE) as “enterprises, organisations and other entities engaged in economic, social and environmental activities which serve the collective ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-03-07)
Recently, I stayed in a hotel in Kotrijk, Belgium, which served tea, coffee and chocolate sourced only from Fairtrade-certified farms. These products are so certified because, in their respective supply chains, Fairtrade ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-06-04)
Kenya’s population has increased tremendously since Independence, from 8.93 million in 1963 to over 53 million. Yet the average agricultural production has fallen due to subdivision. In some places in Gusiiland, the average ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-04-04)
Recently, the Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Development urged saccos to focus on lowering interest rates on loans to members instead of pushing for higher dividends.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2021-10-19)
The cost of accessing healthcare in Kenya is way beyond what many can afford, even with the government including universal health coverage (UCH) in the government’s ‘Big Four Agenda’. Even with insurance, many families ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2021-11-02)
The 2019 census recorded a men-to-women ratio of 49.5:50.5 among the population of 47.6 million. But that is reflected in other statistical indicators. Despite Kenya ranking top in cooperatives in Africa and seventh globally, ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2021-11-16)
A recent review of Kenya’s energy sector revealed that hydropower accounts for about 52.1 per cent of total production followed by thermal (fossil fuel, 32.5 per cent), geothermal (13.3 per cent) and biogas, wind and solar.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2021-12-07)
Traditionally, men have focused on, and controlled through cooperatives, cash crops and dairy farming, largely because these provide higher returns. Extension services are, in fact, often geared towards support for cash ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2021-12-21)
Kenya’s annual demand for housing is 200,000 and 300,000 units in urban and rural areas respectively. The country will need 2.9 million units in a decade, or 290,000 per year, which far exceeds current supply.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-01-18)
What you need to know:
If KFC cannot, for proprietary reasons, tell farmers their requirements, how would they engage?
Does the farmer proceed through trial and error until KFC gives the thumbs-up?
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-02-01)
What you need to know:
The groups facilitated economic participation, marshalling collective labour force for farming activities.
They freely organised themselves in terms of when, where and how they worked. ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-02-15)
What you need to know:
Platform cooperatives have the potential to radically transform cooperative enterprises.
Lessons from emerging experiments in the cooperative platform economy across the world should be ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-03-15)
There is an old drawing I used to see on the noticeboard of our local cooperative. It depicted two cows tethered to either end of a short rope with each pulling, to no avail, in the opposite direction in a bid to reach a ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-01-03)
The 13th African Ministerial Cooperative Conference concluded in Egypt with a declaration committing the ministers to a 13-point agenda that will be the focus of cooperative development in Africa for the next three years.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2023-02-07)
The average age of the agricultural cooperative member, now 61, has gradually increased over the years. Coupled with rising rural-to-urban migration, the resultant imbalance is a harbinger of food scarcity in the not-so-distant ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-04-19)
A fortnight ago (Daily Nation, April 5, 2022), I argued that matatus and boda bodas should be organised into transport service cooperatives rather than saccos. As if on cue, on April 6, 2022, the Commissioner of Cooperatives ...
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-05-03)
A worker-owner cooperative is owned and self-managed by the workers using an established democratic governance structure where decisions are made either directly by every worker-owner or through an elected management.
Nyamongo, Isaac K.(Nation Media Group, 2022-05-17)
I’ll today focus on the link between the seven cooperative principles and worker-owner cooperatives. A worker-owner cooperative is owned and self-managed by its workers using an established democratic governance structure ...