Forms of Legal Business Ownership... Continued

Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is a collection of individuals and physical assets with a common focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection exists in Law and therefore a company is considered a "Legal Person"… In English law, and therefore in the Commonwealth realms, a company is a form of body corporate or corporation, generally registered under the Companies Acts or similar legislation. It does not include a partnership or any other unincorporated group of persons.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company CC: BY-SA

Cooperative
A cooperative (also co-operative; often referred to as a co-op) is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. Cooperatives are defined by the International Cooperative Alliance's Statement on the Cooperative Identity as autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises. A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or by the people who work there. Cooperative enterprises are the focus of study in the field of cooperative economics.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative CC: BY-SA

In Kenya the formation of cooperatives is governed by the Co-operative Societies Act (No.12 of 1997, amended 2004). Click here to access.