Constitution: A Brief

The constitution of the association was first drafted and written by Dr. Rocco, with the first constitutional change happening on 8th February 1972, on Rules No. 12 & 13 of the association, which stated that:

‘The Association comprises of a Chairman, Vice Chairman, and two other elected members, with power to co-opt.’

The change of Rules No. 12 & 13 occurred due to the fact that Mr. P. K. S. Clinton (Chairman 1970-71), had ceased being a member since his term had expired. The committee felt that though his term had expired, his services were essentially needed for the year 1972-3. This therefore meant changing the part of the constitution that stated having ‘two elected members’ to ‘three.’ For this change to go into operation, a special AGM was to be carried out to make a decision and was approved.

The AGM was carried out and the constitution changed.

Another change that came about was to do with the issue of ‘Membership in the Association.’ It needed to be widened to include bona-fide distributors of pesticides. This meant adding to the constitution on Para 5D ‘…bona-fide distributors of reputable pesticides.’ The addition was noted received and accepted by the registrar of societies on 27th March 1979. A year later, on the same issue of membership, an amendment was made on section 5 of the constitution concerning membership. These changes were:

Full Membership: This was made open to any person or organisation in East Africa whose main business was as manufacturer; formulator or contracted representative of manufacturers of active ingredients used in the formulation of agricultural chemicals and related products.
Associate Membership: It was made open to those involved in the importation and distribution of pesticides and related products originating from suppliers described under (a) above.
This was accepted and agreed on.

Along with the change of the association’s name from Pesticides Chemical Association of East Africa (PCAEA) to Pesticides Chemicals Association of Kenya (PCAK), came also the change of the constitution. It was then proposed the following on 14th May 1988:

a) Registration fee to be introduced by the members.
b) A Raise in the subscription fee.
c) The code of ethics to be mentioned in the constitution.
d) Disciplinary Powers to be spelt out.
e) The role of elected members to be spelt out.
f) Nominated members to be reduced to three.

All these were done in the year at different times and were revised by the committee on 2nd December 1988 and forwarded to the Association’s lawyer for re-writing.

Other constitutional changes were made based on ‘Membership in the Association’ on 26th March 1993. They were as follows:

a) Article V (2) of Associate Membership was to be made open to those involved in distribution originating from suppliers.
b) Article X (1) was changed to have the elected members to be of 10 members.
c) Article X (10) on co-opted members was changed from 4 members to read 6 members.

Again on 12th September 1997, another change was made on the definition of:


a) Full Membership: Being an importer or a formulator.
b) Associate Membership: to be any bona-fide local distributor.

Another change concerned the ‘number of elected members in voting.’ It was suggested that 4 votes to be allowed for Full AAK members as opposed to 2 since they paid four times more than the Associate members. On 14th May 1999, the issue was decided upon to remain as it was and the Associate subscription fee was raised to Kshs. 20,000 to be the same as of a Full Member.