Might SACCOs be tribally managed successfully

Abstract

: Savings and co-operative societies (SACCO) serve as an economic cushion for employees’ social welfare, however members bear the brunt of huge losses caused by mismanagement despite the set out regulations and guidelines. This paper set out to investigate tribal management within the Equabo Sacco, Kisumu, Kenya. Production and sales tribe are dominant within Equabo SACCO, where production has the lion share especially in the central management committee (CMC) and it is characterized by stability and strong saving culture. Sales tribe on the other hand is highly fluidic and dynamic but does not possess critical mass therefore occupy CMC through affirmative action. One tribe that can access the information for all tribal members and play a transitory role between the extremes of other tribes and also a link between bottler management and the CMC is the administrative tribe. The tribal aspect is more reflective especially in loan guarantee, and in leadership of the CMC and supervisory committee which are chaired by production and sales tribe respectively. Intertribal correspondence tend to be loaded with skepticism which ensures effective management of the SACCO. Managerial effectiveness and strong leadership can be achieved by SACCOs exploiting tribal strengths and assigning responsibility in a complimentary manner .