Co-operatives Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya has urged the Co-operative University of Kenya (CUK) to establish more campuses across the country to improve access to training for members of the growing co-operative movement.
Oparanya said expanding the university’s presence beyond its existing campuses would enable more co-operative societies and stakeholders to acquire the skills needed to strengthen the sector.
Speaking at a Nairobi hotel during celebrations to mark 10 years since the institution was awarded its charter, the CS said the country’s more than 30,000 registered co-operative societies presented an opportunity for the university to extend its reach.
“We believe this university still has a chance of having more branches across the country because the co-operative movement has come of age and is spread all over,” he said.
“If they have to be served properly, we expect the university to open branches so that people in the co-operative movement can access the institution.”
Oparanya said the Ministry of Co-operatives had also asked the university to develop a comprehensive curriculum to guide the training of stakeholders in the sector.
“We have requested the university to come up with a curriculum for training in the co-operative movement so that we have a properly established syllabus for training all stakeholders in the sector,” he said.
He further challenged the institution to develop a governance framework to address persistent weaknesses in the management of co-operative societies.
“Come up with a governance document that can be used by the movement because this has been the weak point of the co-operative sector,” he added.
The CS said the government was pursuing legislative reforms to address mismanagement, expressing optimism that the proposed Co-operative Bill, which is undergoing mediation in the National Assembly, would help strengthen accountability.
“I am happy that as a ministry, we have submitted a Co-operative Bill in the National Assembly. It is at mediation, and we hope that soon, when the Bill is enacted into law, issues of mismanagement in the sector will be dealt with,” Oparanya said.
Meanwhile, CUK Chancellor Dr Bernard Chitunga said the university was pursuing an expansion agenda focused on infrastructure, academic programmes and financial sustainability.
“Through the Chancellor’s Legacy Programme, we are expanding infrastructure, green modern infrastructure, academics, accommodation and digitally enabled infrastructure,” he said.
Chitunga added that the institution was exploring energy production as part of efforts to enhance its financial independence, with plans to become an independent power producer capable of generating 40 megawatts of electricity.
“We want to build a university that ranks among the elite globally,” he said.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Kamau Ngamau said the university had recorded significant growth since receiving its charter a decade ago.
“When we received the charter 10 years ago, we had a student population of less than 3,000, and today we have over 30,000,” he said.
Ngamau noted that the university had expanded its academic offerings from a limited number of undergraduate programmes to 37 undergraduate programmes, six PhD programmes and 12 master’s programmes, alongside a wide range of diploma and certificate courses.
The developments, he said, reflected the institution’s growing capacity to support Kenya’s co-operative movement through education, research and professional training.
