Ekeza probe report out Thursday

The government has relaxed sanctions against controversial Ekeza Sacco owned by Kiambu County government economic adviser David Kariuki Ngari as it prepares to release an investigation report on Thursday.

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives said Ekeza will now be allowed to resume full operations after two years of suspended licence, but with strict monitoring where all its financial transactions will have to be approved by the government.

On December 17, 2018, Commissioner of Co-operatives, Mary Mungai instituted an inquiry into the operations of Ekeza Sacco with a view of ascertaining its liquidity and its liability position and how member wealth could be cushioned against loss.

The report is set to be released Thursday at Kasarani Indoor Arena where Ekeza members will be informed on the way forward.

“One of the major problem that we had with Ekeza is contravention of its licence jurisdiction where it had been registered in Nairobi’s Starehe sub-county but without following procedure expanded to cover nearly all counties,” Ms Mungai said.

She said Ekeza had an affiliate company by the name Gakuyo Real Estate that failed to file returns to ascertain the validity, stability and safety of joint operations. Consequently the government suspended its licence, a move Mr Ngare said induced panic withdrawals to a point where the sacco sunk into serious financial mess.

“The current position we are in is that Ekeza had member deposits of Sh2.5 billion and panic withdrawals hit Sh500 million within the first week of government suspending our licence,” said Mr Ngare.

He added that so far Ekeza has managed to refund Sh116 million to those pushing to pull out, whereas credits issued stand at Sh1.5 billion with its affiliate company, Gakuyo Real Estate having Sh1.3 billion contractual agreement with its members.