Martin Wachira, a Form Four leaver in Kiambu had the perfect plan on how to get into elective politics.
This was in 2013 when he vied for Riabai Ward representative in Kiambu town. He won with a landslide, thanks to his attractive business model that he pitched to his age-mates. Many who bought into the idea were vulnerable youths ravaged by alcoholism and their wives.
To the alcohol addicts, he promised that immediately he was sworn in, he would form a savings and credit cooperative (Sacco) where members would contribute Sh10 daily. Part of their monthly savings would go into rehabilitating them, with the rest going into projects such as poultry and pig farming for them to earn a decent living.
True to his word, in 2013 after he was sworn in at the Kiambu County Assembly, Wachira teamed up with four others, namely Francis Njiraini, John Gakure, Peter Kihiu and Peter Kinyua, and registered Kumisa Sacco, which became popular through its moniker ‘Kumi Sacco’, where members were allowed to save a minimum of Sh10 daily.
“The idea was unique and hundreds of people joined. Their offices were located in the Kirigiti shopping centre, but they had collection centres in Githurai 45, Kiambu town, Riabai and neighbouring towns. We were contributing a minimum of Sh10 daily, but eventually, people expanded to Sh500, then to Sh1,000 daily,” John Mwai tells the Nation in an interview.
He lost Sh160,000 after Kumisa Sacco collapsed nearly five years ago.
So popular was the business model that in one of the media interviews that Wachira gave, he claimed that the Sacco had Sh11 million in customer savings in the first year alone, and in two years, deposits had reached Sh33 million with a customer base of 7,000.
Kumisa’s marketing strategy was simple — have testimonials on television and vernacular radio stations detailing how the Sacco had benefited savers. For most of the radio stations, advertising cost only Sh2-3 per word.
‘’The way the business model was being advertised; you could not resist it because Sh10 savings daily was not seen as a big deal. Most people joined Kumisa Sacco out of fantasy. I had accumulated Sh20,000 in savings but when I tried to borrow a loan against my savings, I was told to wait. Later I found out that it had collapsed,” says Joseph Kamau a fruit vendor at Kirigiti, a few metres from Kumisa Sacco’s office.
''I have never heard from Wachira again. I once saw him in Kiambu town driving a big car. Some of the alcoholics who had been enrolled by their family members to join Kumisa Sacco hoping to be rehabilitated as promised have already died. I am lucky to be alive, I never went into depression,” says Kamau, who is now trying to pick up his life again.
Daily Nation can now reveal that the wheels were set in motion for the vulnerable shareholders of the Sacco to lose their deposits totalling Sh100 million in 2017 after Wachira failed to retain his seat.
Wachira and his confidants presented a loan proposal to a local bank. They sought a loan of Sh10 million but were granted a total of Sh7.2 million.
At the time of the borrowing, members’ savings were almost Sh100 million, and immediately the loan was approved and deposited into the accounts of Kumisa Sacco, Wachira silently left the management of the Sacco, and loan disbursement to the members almost immediately died. He never handed over to the new management.
Henry King’e was one of supervisory committee members at Kumisa Sacco and a whistleblower who noticed that things were going south.
He lost the Sh200,000 he had saved with the Sacco.
He says officials saw some documents that revealed the extent of how the top executives stole from shareholders.
“'Kumisa Sacco had really started very well and its concept blended with many people in Kirigiti, Riabai, Kiamumbi area, especially youth and women. Most people started saving Sh10 daily, which was collected in cash and someone was issued with a receipt. Later, we started paying via M-Pesa and many people increased their savings, but we later came to realise as the supervisory committee that Wachira and other board members were withdrawing members’ money to set up and expand their personal businesses, that were registered under their names, not Kumisa Sacco,” King’e laments.
“He is now a rich man …We have been to every government office hoping to get a refund. We have never been helped and I don’t think this interview will change anything,” King’e says. He now works at a dry cleaner in Kiambu town.
Jane Wanjiku (not her real name) runs a grocery shop in Kirigiti shopping centre, she had saved Sh150,000 with Kumisa Sacco when it started in 2013. At the end of 2017, she visited the Sacco offices in Kirigiti, hoping to withdraw her savings, only to find out that it had closed down.
“I was even featured on television for testimonials. Even what I was promised to be paid for advertising I was not paid. I was conned my savings and advertising money that I was supposed to be paid,” she says.
“We now understand why they always insisted that contributions be paid through collection centres when we started. There is no trail on who paid what. Those who paid through mobile money may be lucky in case the government pursues Mr Wachira and his other directors and compel them to pay the shareholders,” says Mary Mukami, who lost Sh134,000.
It turns out that Kumisa Sacco took deposits illegally from unsuspecting Kenyans, given that it had no approval from the regulator — the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) to take deposits.
Yesterday, when Daily Nation reached out to Sasra for a comment on how Kumisa Sacco received members' deposits as a Front Office Service Authority (Fosa) without its approval, Sasra chief executive Peter Njuguna said the agency was not aware Kumisa was in operation.
''As you may be aware, Saccos are registered under the Cooperative Societies Act, and at no time were the illegal activities of Kumisa Sacco brought to our attention and we regret it happened,” Njuguna said.
In 2021, when Kumisa Sacco members sought an audience with Kiambu sub-county cooperative officer Stephen Mwangi on the status of their refund, they were told that preliminary investigations had revealed that Kumisa Sacco operated through fraud, and members’ deposits were diverted to personal accounts of the directors of the Sacco.
Mwangi was not ready for comment by the time of publishing this story, and he never responded to Nation calls and text messages.
At Kiambu Police Station and Kiambu Law Courts, Kumisa Sacco members continue filing documents, hoping that one day, the officials who made a fortune out of their vulnerability will be brought to book.
