Traders question county on poor business environment
What you need to know:
- Speaking during a roundtable event, city business people raised concerns with county executives over public participation, security, tax harmonisation between counties and national agencies, service delivery and land use.
- On the harassment by city askaris, Dr Kidero said the count was in the process of training the officers on culture change besides employing over 500 with proper skills on how to engage with the community.
The Nairobi County government officials were on Wednesday hard-pressed to explain why the city had unconducive business environment, with traders complaining of poor service delivery.
Speaking during a roundtable event, city business people raised concerns with county executives over public participation, security, tax harmonisation between counties and national agencies, service delivery and land use.
They also raised issues with management issues which they said was hurting business operations and the overall cost of doing business in the county.
Garbage, noise pollution, street children, matatu menace, traffic, corruption, traffic jams, street hawking, sewerage menace and bad state of city roads, illegal constructions and structures were other concerns raised in the meeting.
The Mistreatment of business persons and residents by city inspectors and askaris was termed as worrying and allegations of harassment and unlawful arrest by county government inspectorate was cited as the major challenge to doing business in the city.
Chief Executive Officer of Kenya National Chamber of Commerce Kenneth Mutai said that the high-handedness of city inspectorate officers was a challenge to some traders despite having the necessary documentation to carry out business.
“All the business people fear the city askaris more than they fear police. They will always find a fault even if you have all the licenses,” the traders said.
However Governor Evans Kidero said that his government had been aware of the plight and that appropriate measures had been put in place to address the issues raised.
Dr Kidero said that the county had a bad image since the defunct city council both locally and internationally.
“When we took over the cases of crimes have reduced from 2,000 cases a month to less than 100 cases. Criminals operate where there is darkness but with the installation of 42,000 street lights crime has reduced,” said Dr Kidero.
He added that over 800 officers have since been sacked after being found to be corrupt and that the county will continue to do so if one is found culpable.
He added that over 2,000 cases of corruption are being investigated by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (Eacc).
On the harassment by city askaris, Dr Kidero said the count was in the process of training the officers on culture change besides employing over 500 with proper skills on how to engage with the community.
He added that he will be meeting with the business community four times a year to discuss the progress and also carry out such engagements
