Pension is important but might lock you in. I think it depend. What I have done is increased my voluntary contribution on pension to the maximum allowed by law for the sake of cutting on tax. Then the rest I've put in the sacco not only for the loans but mainly for the dividend. If your sacco pays good dividend then you should consider it, problem is, dividend collected will find it's way to you stomach.

I guess what he means is that your money will be tied until you r 55 years, there r variations to this requirement though.
Maybe you should consider a hybrid of joining both a Sacco and a pension scheme, the two r open ended in that if your income increases you can increase the contributions.
The Sacco will provide u with capital as soon as 6 months from the time you join and if you r aggressive enough you will grow your savings beyond your wildest dreams.
The pension will provide a one of boost at some future date, its also a way of diversification.

I think i'll do both but i prefer to be more aggressive on the pension as it will ensure some liquidity in the future considering am not great in saving. i already have several pieces of land and plan on building on one next year
What sacco do you advice on; the ones i have heard of:
>mhasibu has that accountant requirement
>murata has funny issues and a hacked website
>muramati has changed

@ kaka, @wairegi: This option sounds interesting. Is there a hybrid product in the market and which firm for instance is offering?

a wise person opened my eyes: to retire at 55 and live for another 20 yrs, assuming currently monthly budget is 60k you will need to have accumulated 60k X 12 X 20yrs = 14.4m
Now work backwardsto get how much you need to save currently 14.4 / (24yrs X 12) = 50kg. pm is the figure you need to save. Factor in inflation and occassional emergencies, add things like holidays and that figure grows like weeds
A good strategy is have the pension as a smaller component of your portfolio but build on other components to give cashflows and grow with inflation. Stock market and real estate come to mind.
A good idea to build savings when you are not good with cash is buy plots and shares then later sell as you build on others.
Dont forget to take insurance eg life; for protection (not growth or profit necessarily) esp if you have dependants

Trust in God and give every seed you plant time to grow

I'd much rather aggression in a SACCO. At your age you can afford to make mistakes and learn from them. Moreover a business idea can one day come to you, you'll use what you have in the SACCO.

Check out Safaricom Investment Coop, UNAITAS (Former Muramati) and Kenya Bankers (Not sure if they allow non-bankers), check with your church also

It should not be a choice of two, Pension or SACCO as this presumes savings without possibility of earning additional cash from those savings beyond the usual dividends. Widen the scope, think NSE, Unit trusts (like Old Mutual's), aggressive land speculation. Of course some of these presumes you have saved enough in a SACCO to take a sizeable loan of like a million shillings.

Kgs of what?