Fisher of souls and father of Kenya’s Sacco movement

Fr Joakim Getonga at his office in Murang'a Town,on May 27, 2019. Gitonga started the first registered Sacco in Kenya,1964, Mariira Parish Co-operative Savings and Credit Society. He was given dispensation from priestly obligations and allowed to marry by Pope John Paul 11, in 1975. [Kibata Kihu/Standard]

If you conduct an online search of the name Joachim Getonga on Google, the search engine will give you 102 results. When you put the title Fr before the name, Google will give you 7,640 results. 

A priest (now retired), author and chairman of the local Kikuyu Council of Elders, Fr Getonga is a household name in Murang’a County. He is a man of many firsts, a celebrated Kenyan whose biggest achievement is not captured by internet search engines.

You can easily tell he is a man after his culture. Inside a small room in his office in Murang’a town, Getonga sits on a wooden chair as he turns over pages of his manuscripts.

Cultural erosion

The walls are packed with books and newspapers -- old and new. Plaques of historical heroes hang on the wall and close to his desk, Getonga has placed an image of a colonial paramount chief Karuri wa Gakure who originated from Murang’a.

Getonga, now 84, pulls out a book titled ‘European Paganism in Africa’, and in a humorous stunt to start a conversation he says, “We were not pagans, the white people were.”

The retired catholic priest has written seven books, four still unpublished. Through his books, Getonga reaches out to anyone willing to learn about erosion of African culture after introduction of the western way of life into Africa.

Born in 1935 in Tuthu village in Kigumo, Murang’a County, Father Getonga will go in history books as a man of many firsts. He is the brainchild behind Murang’a College of Technology, an institution he served as principal.

Shortly after retiring from priesthood in 1975, he joined a team of elites from Murang’a to build a college. He became principal and organised a series of fund drives.

“We established mechanical and woodwork departments and 30 students enrolled in the same year with no financial support from the government,” he says.

The school has since developed to Murang’a University of Technology.

But of his many achievements, this retired catholic priest is least known -- and less celebrated -- as among founders of the cooperative movement in Kenya in 1970.

As a young man, he was pained to see his people grapple with abject poverty and oppression by the white people. In his priesthood, he worked hard to help small traders.

When Africans were first allowed to join the cooperative movement in Kenya in 1959, Fr Getonga was among the Catholic theology students who underwent training on significance of saving in cooperatives.

“A Catholic bishop invited a priest from Germany to educate us on the movement and how to help our people form cooperative societies,” he says.

That priest, Fr Paul Clay, urged them to help members of their congregations improve their living standards while seeking spiritual nourishment. 

After his ordination in 1960, Fr Getonga was posted to Mariira parish in Kigumo. Armed with the knowledge he gained from Fr Clay, he mobilised small traders from Murang’a and taught them about the cooperative movement.

“It pained me because only the rich could access bank loans due to high interest rates. I wanted to help the small-scale traders. In every station I was posted to, my first obligation was to teach them about cooperatives,” he says.

Mariira was a typical village where colonialists had confined villagers to bar them from providing Mau Mau fighters with food and water.

“The villagers were poor and their farms did not have as much produce. They were confined and could not walk out. I used to talk to them during mass and they liked the idea of starting a Sacco,” he says.

In Murang’a, 10 people embraced the idea and Getonga took the bold move and approached then Attorney General to register a cooperative society. He was dismissed.

“The AG was a white man and I boldly told him I wanted to register a cooperative ‘for the poor people’ but he dismissed me. He told me the poor people of Murang’a could not afford to run a society and I had to get a lawyer to help me,” says the former priest.

But he could not afford Sh1,500 lawyer’s fee and he shelved the idea until 1965 when he approached the first African cooperative officer who helped him register Mariira Cooperative Society.

A month after its registration, the sacco was launched by then Minister for Industry Gikonyo Kiano in Murang’a.

“That was a big achievement and many came to witness the launch of the first people’s bank. I was the first chairman and manager of the sacco in a committee of 10 people,” he said.

He was then sponsored to study in Rome and England. On his return to Kenya in 1966, he was transferred from Murang’a to the Nyeri Catholic Cathedral where he registered yet another cooperative called Nyeri Cathedral Parish Cooperative, now known as Cathedral Holdings. This cooperative built its first establishment with Sh32,000.

“It was easy to bring everyone on board and I mobilised all teachers. Every payday, I would ensure they deposited part of their salary to the Sacco,” he says.

Africa’s best

The sacco he established in Murang’a also grew in numbers and savings, with its members building their first establishment in Murang’a town and naming it Mukuruwe wa Nyagathanga Sacco. 

Other cooperatives mushroomed among farmers in Murang’a, Nyeri, Nakuru and Kirinyaga. Getonga was happy that the movement was gaining momentum in Mount Kenya.

In Kanyenyaini, tea farmers started Muramati Cooperative and Building Society that later grew to Unaitas Sacco and Equity Bank respectively.

Saccos later mushroomed in other areas such as Kirinyaga with Getonga lauding efforts of the Catholic Church to support him in establishment of the credit societies.

“Today, I am a happy man because the movement gained momentum and actually took hold in sectors like agriculture,” he says.

Kenya credit union movement is rated among the best in Africa with more than 22,000 registered saccos.