“It is with profound shock and regret that we received this morning the sorrowful news of the untimely death of former Chairman of the Co-operative Bank of Kenya Mr. Stanley Muchiri. We mourn the passing of an icon in the co-operative movement. His dedicated service to the movement saw him assume greater responsibilities to serve in leadership positions in nearly every key co-operative organization in Kenya, in Africa and the world.” This is the message from the Co-operative Bank that announced the sudden demise of former Co-op Bank chairman, Stanley Muchiri on October 8.
Mr. Muchiri died while attending the ministerial conference of the International Co-operative Alliance, Africa (ICA-Africa) where he served as president since 2003. He is best remembered as the long-serving director of Co-operative Bank in 1986, vice-chairman in 1993 and chairman in 2002, a position he held until his retirement in 2017. Moreover, Muchiri was an outstanding champion and pillar of Kenya’s co-operative movement. His service in the Sacco sector goes way back to July 1974 when he joined Murang’a Farmers District Co-operative Union as General Manager.
Apart from the formal co-operative banking sector, Mr. Muchiri was a key figure in coffee farming and the co-operative sector. After his retirement from Cooperative Bank he remained president of the Federation of Cooperative Unions in Africa.
Mr. Muchiri was married to Jerusha Muthoni with whom they were blessed with a son and four daughters’. The late Muchiri had since 1997 spent Sh106 million on funding education, political, religious and health needs in Murang’a, according to his family.
The widow eulogises him as “always busy working to make a difference in the world, starting with his nuclear family where he was the engine behind its many milestones in investments”.
In the investment world, Mr. Muchiri was quoted as a shareholder of CIC Insurance Group Ltd (CIC) Multiline Insurance & Brokers.
Mr. Muchiri had retired as Co-op Bank chairman in October 2017. he had been serving in this position since 2002.