Abstract:
Kenya celebrated 100 years in 2008 since the first Co
-
operative enterprise
was est
ablished by British colonial settler community in Kipkelion in Kericho.
Today, the Co
-
operative landscape in Kenya is dominated by Co
-
operatives in
four economic sectors: financial (mainly savings and credit, banking and
insurance), agriculture (mainly for
export crops), housing (mainly land buying
and real estate development) and transport (mainly mini
-
bus public transport
for urban and peri
-
urban areas). These Co
-
operatives employ about 450,000
people directly and perhaps close to 1 million in related sup
port services.
Three key categories of Co
-
operatives that have not taken off in Kenya
include, but are not limited to, consumer Co
-
operatives, workers’ Co
-
operatives and environmentally
-
friendly Co
-
operatives. There is little
understanding of the reasons f
or the low uptake of these categories of Co
-
operatives in Kenya. The research investigated the historical context in which
the consumer Co
-
operatives emerged in Kenya; their chronological
development; their organization structure and socio
-
economic impact.
Based
on the five key questions that guided the study,
it was found that
(a) many
people and the labour movement institutions in Kenya do have full
understanding of the nature, benefits and operations of Consumer Co
-
operatives (b) the main factors that ha
ve
contributed to the failure of
established consumer Co
-
operative enterprises is
poor
governance and
management capacity of Co
-
operative leaders and members of consumer Co
-
operative enterprises (c) the labour movement played a key role in the
establishmen
t and support of consumer Co
-
operative enterprises during the
colonial period and the first three decades after independence (1960s and
1980s) but now play an insignificant role today
, and (d)
the Kenyan
government should provide the requite political good
will and support
national institutional structures to assure sustainability
.
