Nairobi, April 27 -- When SIC announced its withdrawal freeze early this year, the numbers seemed contradictory. The cooperative reported owning assets worth over Sh6 billion in land parcels across high-growth satellite counties and regional hubs, yet members seeking their funds were turned away.

The explanation lies in liquidity, a term members rarely discuss at annual general meetings. Liquidity denotes how quickly an asset can be converted to cash. In layman's terms, cash in a bank account is perfectly liquid, whereas a half-built apartment complex, where contractors abandoned the site, that is frozen capital, technically an asset practically useless.

This isn't a new story. We have witnessed cooperative failures since 2010. The patt...