• This comes days after bloggers flooded social media with allegations of poor governance of the Sacco.
• Current board chairperson James Kinoro acknowledged that they had received Ngaai’s resignation and had accepted it.
Image: Alice Waithera
Controversy has rocked Murang’a-based Unaitas Sacco after one of its board members, Joseph Ngaai, resigned in a huff.
Ngaai announced his resignation on Sunday after serving the board since 2002 and eventually rose to the vice chairperson position in 2005 and chairperson of the board in 2011.
This comes days after bloggers flooded social media with allegations of poor governance of the Sacco.
But Ngaai told journalists that the Sacco’s board recently met and blamed him for tipping the bloggers.
He said the Sacco has been facing serious challenges that require urgent action and that its leadership and governance issues are due for an honest appraisal.
Ngaai claimed there is a deliberate attempt to sweep emerging issues under the carpet and the current board is on a ‘self-preservation’ mode and has resorted to ganging up and mob-lynching those who dissent.
“In the recent board meeting, the board sought to cover up the issues raised by blaming me for all the tribulations in a bid to cover them up,” he said.
“I feel that my 20 years as a member and leader at the Sacco cannot allow me to engage in any activities that can harm the Sacco.”
He said he is a major shareholder of the Sacco and his shareholding is bigger than all the other board members’ combined, indicating that he would have more to lose if the Sacco got into trouble.
Ngaai said he would not continue sitting on the board, which he said refuses to be accountable to the organisation.
“I will not allow the board to take advantage of me to cover up glaring issues. I have been a victim of this before where similar issues were highlighted and used to effect my removal from the chairmanship but I will not allow them to drag me through the mud again,” he said.
“I wish to inform all that I have resigned from the board with immediate effect and I hope the current board members will have the courage to resolve the matters affecting the Sacco currently”.
Current board chairperson James Kinoro acknowledged that they had received Ngaai’s resignation and had accepted it.
He said that during a board meeting held on October 14, members passed a motion of no confidence against him "due to governance issues and sponsorship of malicious social media content aimed at taking the sacco down from within".
“Board members allowed you to honourably resign instead of suspending you to accord you the respect as a former chairman. However, instead you have doubled down on this perilous path, confirming our worst fears that you were indeed the kingpin of these malicious campaigns to sabotage the Sacco”.
Kinoro said there is no record of Ngaai raising concerns internally or to Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority and this confirms that he did not have any concrete concerns prior to the vote of no confidence.
“Unaitas is bigger than one man’s thirst for power. We wish you well in your future endeavours,” the letter concluded.
In 2021, a man was charged in Milimani law courts with giving false information that led to the ouster of Ngaai as the chairperson of the Sacco in 2020.
Alexander Irungu was accused of reporting to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters that Ngaai had falsified his academic credentials on November 28, 2019.
Chief magistrate Francis Andayi heard that Irungu accused Ngaai of forging his KCSE certificate to gain admission to a technical college in Murang’a to pursue a certificate course.
Investigations by DCI, however, revealed that the claims were untrue and Irungu was arrested and charged. He denied the charges and was released on a Sh30,000 bond.
The Sacco was started in 1993 by tea farmers from Murang’a and was initially known as Muramati Sacco before it was eventually re-launched and renamed Unaitas and started incorporating other sectors.
Edited by A.N