When President William Ruto assigned his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua to oversee reforms in the coffee and tea sector in the country through an executive order, farmers wildly celebrated, little did they know that the cartel in the sector would not allow him to succeed. Soon after, farmers were taken aback when the DP publicly announced that a cartel in the coffee sector whom he did not name had even attempted to bribe him in a bid to slow him down in enforcing the reforms. The DP revealed that the cartel had promised him Ksh. 2 for each kilo of coffee exported from Kenya.
Even though the DP did not name the cartels by name, accusing fingers are being pointed at the Cooperative Bank CEO, Dr. Gideon Muriuki, and the bank’s vice chairman who is also Harambee Sacco chairman, Mcloud Malonza, as being responsible for the woes facing the coffee sector.
Dr Muriuki, who claims to be a born-again Christian, is the longest-serving bank CEO in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa and has always survived any legal or managerial punishment for wrongdoing, despite his bank being caught many times in dirty deals, including questionable dealings like the NYS fraud that saw their rivals land into serious trouble, like the prosecution of a rival bank CEO at the time, which made him lose his post.
It is proving difficult for government officials to police Cooperative Bank since they are the ones who allegedly fund most foreign travels by senior government officials in charge of the Ministry of Cooperatives attending conferences in major coffee-producing countries like Colombia and Costa Rica, furthermore, as long as the bank is the one used by the government or donors to stabilize the coffee sector in Kenya, funds will always be misused, as was witnessed through STABEX and SKIP, which were meant to stabilize the coffee sector but failed miserably. Dr. Muriuki was part of the team that handled the two government projects.
Highly placed sources at the bank, a bank that has since been captured from the rightful owner, the farmer and is now being controlled by a powerful cartel, report that Dr Muriuki along with long-serving board members, including top officials of big Sacco’s, notably Harambee Sacco’s long-serving Chairman Mcloud Malonza (currently board chairman of Co-op banks’ subsidiary Kingdom Securities Bank), terribly fall short of Chapter 6 of the constitution because of mismanaging funds for cooperatives, a clear case of economic crimes.
Confidential sources have also told a local digital publication that Mr Marangu of Coop Bank, Macloud Malonza, Chairman of Kingdom Bank/Vice Chairman of Co-operative Bank/Harambee Sacco/Cooperative Alliance and CiC Insurance, Daniel Marube of Coop Bank and CAK and a top official at CiC Insurance are all part of the cartel. Macloud Malonza has been grilled multiple times by CID and EACC and paraded in handcuffs before anti-corruption courts over corruption charges and theft but Dr Muriuki is said to have personally intervened using his networks to rescue him. The publication request to the Commissioner for Cooperatives to be provided with details as to when CAK filed their returns last proved futile; we understand the last time they did so was ten years ago. See https://nation.africa/kenya/news/warrant-issued-against-sacco-officials-over-fraud–811162