• Members will not be required to provide collateral and will only have to get other members to be their guarantors when applying for a loan.
• Each member of the Sacco has also been provided with medical insurance that covers their families.
Elders from Murang’a county have formed a Sacco to empower themselves financially.
The sacco dubbed ‘Njungw’a’–which means a traditional stool–will help the elders from Kiama Kia Ma to consolidate their savings and uplift their lives.
The newly installed county patron Peter Kagwanja said the Sacco aims at consolidating Sh10 million from members that will be used to give credit services.
Members will not be required to provide collateral and will only have to get other members to be their guarantors when applying for a loan.
Kagwanja, speaking on Friday during an annual general meeting during which he was installed as the county patron, said the leadership of the Sacco will reach out to leaders to support them to expand it.
He noted that the money will be issued in the grassroots to make it more accessible to members.
“This money is incorruptible because elders are called so due to their trustworthiness,” he said.
Each member of the Sacco has also been provided with medical insurance that covers their families.
Kagwanja said if all homes had such covers, there would be no need for the numerous medical drives conducted.
He noted that the Sacco is looking for ways to enhance the insurance to make it possible for members to seek treatment abroad.
The University of Nairobi lecturer said the elders had also unanimously agreed to start keeping rabbits which he said have a huge market in Norway, Denmark, China, Australia and other countries.
Their white meat is considered a delicacy and they provide the best organic manure for farmers, he said.
Rabbits also require minimal space and will reduce incidences of land succession conflicts.
Kagwanja said afterwards, members will consider venturing into other farming practices that will further empower them financially.
The Sacco has also commissioned elders with indigenous knowledge on what herbs and foods the elders should consume to minimise incidences of lifestyle diseases such as cancer.
“We are trying to go back to what our ancestors were doing so we can be able to go to banks at 90 years and get loans because people are hopeful that we will live long enough to repay them."
The elder said currently, banks consider 70-year-olds too old to qualify for a loan.
“We want to treat ourselves at the level of what we eat and understand that food is the first medicine,” he added.
Kagwanja, who is also a political analyst, however, noted that the elders are not interested in politics and are only trying to support their families while bettering the community.
He said they will go to homes to prevent youths from committing suicide and avert marital murders that have been on the rise in the county.
“We are here today to consolidate our families and villages in terms of wealth, health and financial stability and we will talk to youths in a way that only elders can."
Kagwanja said the elders want to set an example on how people can grow together without divisive politics.
The council’s national chairman Kung’u Muigai lauded Murang’a elders for their achievements and plans to empower themselves.
Edited by R.Wamochie