MAKONGENI TRADERS PROTEST COUNTY GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT

The business community in Kamenu Ward have expressed their disappointment to the County Government of Kiambu in the way the Thika Sub-County Administrator's office is handling the Business people of Makongeni, Kiganjo and other Estates. 

 Through the Makongeni Business Association (MBA), the traders are questioning why the notices issued by the county government to harass them are quoting Kiambu County Finance Act of 2014, whose hearing was due today Monday 12th October 2015. They claim that it was a breach of the law and illegal for this government to use that Act while it was already contested in Court. They wondered which Revenue Law the Officers used to make them arbitrarily decide, without Reference to any document, on how much someone was supposed to pay as rates and fees

Through a letter addressed to the County Government of Kiambu and copied to the area security organs, they are also contesting the manner in which some business people in the area are inhumanly manhandled, arrested and dumped into Ward Landrovers, without due process, or clear explanation on the reasons for arrest.

 The protest letter is also talking of county askaris in conjunction with some administration police are applying uncouth and unconstitutional methods to forcefully enter Business premises without identification, intimidating them and threatening them with arrest, a method which is already. they sited one case last week where they stormed into a Dental Clinic as the doctor was attending a patient, to arrest a Chemist operator on the other side of the Clinic.

 With the current constitutional dispensation, they claimed that it was an abuse of office for officers to use force or intimidation to make the Business people append signatures to Notices to attend Court. They added that whoever refused to sign was threatened of  "Utawekwa kwa gari!" just to force them to oblige.  This left them very shaken Business people, especially the new and upcoming entrepreneurs who deserved to be motivated by the County Government.

They are now wondering why hard working Kenyans in these areas can no longer work in peace, earn their daily bread and raise their children without looking at their backs for the County Officers. They say that the traders are not opposed to the collection of County Revenues (Business Operating Permits), but all they are asking for is the right to be treated in decorum and listened to as taxpayers.  They believe that there are better ways to address this issue, part of it being positive Business Community mobilization.

 Makongeni Business Association is a registered body aimed at supporting Business people of Makongeni, Kiganjo, Kisii and Landless Estates. The Association is advocating for the Rights of Business people and endeavors to intervene whenever issues related to their welfare are concerned.