Small-scale traders in Keroka town have been urged to embrace one another and shun divisions resulting from boundary disputes.
The town is located between Kisii and Nyamira counties and has been a centre of controversy since the devolved units took charge in 2013.
Recently, the county government of Nyamira was said to have evacuated traders operating from along the highway who were believed to be residents of Kisii County, before Nyamira County offices in the township were set ablaze by unknown people.
Speaking in the town on Sunday, former Nyaribari Masaba MP Hezron Manduku urged the traders to shun the boundary differences and work as a community of business people.
"We have lived in harmony for years as Keroka people and let the county boundaries not separate us. We should work as brothers and sisters without necessarily dividing ourselves along counties,” he said.
He urged authorities from the two counties to sit down and come up with a common tax plan and also challenge authorities to allow the traders operate from any side of the boundary.
“Let us not come up with restrictions that this one comes from that county and so on. The authorities should come with a common tax plan so that our traders operate from whichever side they feel is convenient for them. It’s not appropriate we segregate people along the counties’ the come from,” he said.
He also called for prosecution of people who set the offices on fire leading to the loss of critical Nyamira County data.