Governors and the national government have clashed over powers to control cooperatives in the country.

Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui failed to strike an agreement with governors who have accused the government of seeking to take over roles of managing registration and overseeing cooperatives.

The meeting that ended with a memorandum of understanding between the ministry of cooperatives and Council of Governors to iron out the contentious issues in the Cooperatives Bill 2023 that is before Parliament was held yesterday in Nairobi.

“We are giving time to have the cooperatives bill before parliament looked at again so that the concerns raised by the council of governors be taken into consideration,” said Chelugui.

Chelugui announced that his ministry is set to advise parliament to halt discussing the bill until input of the governors is considered.

“I am going to report to Parliament to ensure that two teams from both sides is formed to have outstanding matters resolved and agreed upon before,”said Chelugui.

The Council of Governors has raised concerns over the bill, especially on matters such as registration of cooperatives which they argue should be function of devolved units and national government.

The meeting was called to address the contentious issues arising from the unbundling exercise and the draft Cooperative Bill 2023.

Chairperson of Agriculture and Cooperatives Committee in the Council of Governors Kenneth Lusaka said the council objects the proposed legislation and calls upon the ministry of cooperatives to withdraw the bill currently tabled in parliament to allow extensive engagement and incorporation of comments from key stakeholders including the county governments.