Police deploy to restore peace during Malaba drivers meeting

The Field Force Unit personnel were on Thursday deployed to calm down chaotic meeting of taxi drivers in Malaba that nearly turned bloody.

The drivers under their umbrella body Malaba Taxi Owners and Drivers Association (MATODA) SACCO saw a section of the members turning rowdy, accusing their leaders of being none transparent and denying them the right to share their savings.

Led by one Silver Kanyole, the disgruntled group of Taxi owners, drivers and conductors claimed that whereas the constitution is clear about the savings of the association, the leaders have instead personalized the association to an extent that they are not certain of their personal savings in the association.

Speaking during the annual general meeting held at Port Springs Villa Malaba, Kanyole accused the top leaders of the association of meddling with the affairs of the association including shares and savings which he said might lead to the collapse of the cooperative.

James Ikileng the SACCO chairman acknowledged the concern expressed by some of the cooperators but insisted that it was not necessary to share out savings and shares unless they have an intention to disband the SACCO.   

He disclosed that majority of members demanding to have SACCO money shared have formed a parallel SACCO and they are doing it with the purpose of killing MATODA Sacco.

He said some of them were recently suspended by the association over indiscipline and defaulting to pay the loans they borrowed from the SACCO and want to use this as an escape root but he stressed that they are going to use all the sections of the cooperative act to recover all the borrowed money to members.

Ikileng said the SACCO will only accept them back if they apologized or else they are also going to apply the sections of the cooperative act to expel members who are registered in more than one SACCO.

He told the meeting that the disgruntled group already belong to a registered SACCO called ‘'Maongano'' Sacco and want to bring in confusion to destabilize MATODA.

However the commandant for Field Force police unit Malaba Abassi Alubeye said the deployment had nothing to do with intimidating members they were responding to the request by the leaders of the SACCO.

He urged members to refrain from forming groups, citing that it hinders development. Further stressing that as police, they will not hesitate to arrest any individual trying to meddle with people's peace and unity.