So much for women’s empowerment, or the constitution’s two-thirds gender rule, a report by the Sacco Regulatory Authority (Sasra) has revealed that of the 165 chairpersons of deposit-taking savings and credit cooperative societies, only six are women.

Of the 4.78 million Sacco members some 1,634,760 are women, 34.2 percent of the total but when it comes to the chairman positions women make up less than four percent.

Women do better at the vice-chairperson level accounting for 25.4 percent of all positions but that’s as good as it gets.

Saccos are big business controlling over 30 percent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product and 80 percent of accumulated savings.

Saccos handle deposits of Sh380.4 billion and Sh419.55 billion in loan disbursements (December 2019 figures) so perhaps it comes as no surprise that the treasurer’s position is much sought after but again men dominate as office holders accounting for 84 percent of them.

Likewise with the post of secretary, also highly coveted, where men make up  85.2 percent of office-holders.