A group of tea farmers from Murang’a came together in 1993 to start what promised to be the next big thing after Equity Bank, the name was Muramati Sacco.
All was glory and success and members kept increasing and the vision of getting a bank licence grew each day.
And as its vision of getting a banking license became clearer, it became necessary to drop the Muramati name that could hurt its prospects of expanding beyond Central Kenya. It became Unaitas in 2012.
As reported last year June by the editor of this site, state security agencies, in a very huge report, flagged the unaitas Sacco management and dimmed their dream of becoming a bank.
The huge report questioned some of the Unaitas Sacco management money-laundering violations, tribalism within the institution and profiled dirty wealth acquired by the likes of CEO Martin Muhoho since they joined the Sacco.
The NIS dossier seemed to discredit the SASRA clean bill of health that had been given to Unaitas Sacco, putting the credibility of the Sacco’s regulatory authority in doubt. The Sacco had relied on the SASRA positive rating to apply for the banking license.
The Central Bank of Kenya monitoring and inspection unit also punched holes into the SACCO’s governance and management structure. Efforts by the management to get the licence flopped as CBK demanded future reforms if the license is to be issued.
Of great concern is the infighting among UNAITAS board of directors and senior staff members in management. Another CBK concern is the SACCO inside link to frequent insiders led cyber-attacks and poor services.
According to an insider, the SACCO lost a cool Sh500 million through flagged accounts, unflag and transfer funds. Sources say despite the SACCO investing in a new technology T24 banking system, the crime is still rife to date.
A source well versed with the inner workings at the Sacco, tells us that it is like a battleground and you don’t know when the bullet will hit you.
The current CEO, Martin Muhoho survived the battleground with many injuries especially from Unaitas Sacco chair Joseph Kabugu who was against his dream to be Unaitas CEO.
After push and pull, Martin Muhoho managed to become the CEO and had to create a breathing space, by plotting how to remove some threats.
On May 10th, Mr Alexander Irungu Wanjiru was charged with giving false information to police about Mr Joseph Ngaau Kabugu’s academic papers leading to his exit from Unaitas.
The hitman was hired by CEO Martin Muhoho who now wants to eliminate threats.
Mr Alexander Irungu Wanjiru was taken to the Milimani chief magistrate’s court on Monday and charged with lying to police in a bid to cause them to arrest and investigate Mr Kabugu on allegations of falsifying his academic credentials.
Court papers indicate that Mr Irungu reported the matter at the Serious Crimes Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
The court heard that the accused told Sergeant Sevelina Kalunge that Mr Kiburu forged a document for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams so as to gain admission to Shinners Technical College in Murang’a County to pursue a certificate course.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi heard that by furnishing the law enforcers with the false information, Mr Irungu intended to cause the police officer to investigate, arrest and charge Mr Kabugu.
Claims untrue
However, investigations established that the allegations were not true, leading to Mr Irungu’s arrest and the criminal case that started on Monday.
He committed the offence on November 28, 2019, at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi.
Mr Irungu denied the charge and sought to be released on reasonable bond terms.
Our reports indicate that there is unease at Unaitas over such a witch-hunt and people are blaming the CEO Martin Muhoho over all this drama.
It all seems they’ll have to wait for the banking licence for thousands of years to come.
