Traders have called upon Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua to intervene and bring to an end alleged harassment and extortion committed by county askaris and staff.
The hawkers, led by their association chairman Simon Ole Nasieku, claimed that county enforcement officers and other county staff were colluding with organised cartels to extort money from traders by threatening to evict them from spaces allocated to them by the county government.
Nasieku condemned the act saying that the officers were selling spaces allocated to small traders for as much as Sh300,000 to tycoons within Nakuru town.
“It is now clear that the exercise of evicting hawkers from the central business district has been turned to a money-minting scheme by unscrupulous county staff and other organised cartels,” Nasieku told HiviSasa.com
The hawkers further claimed that the existence of cartels in the allocation of spaces had paralysed their operations due to frequent harassments.
The county enforcement officers initially referred to as municipal council askaris have been accused on various occasions of harassing and torturing people.
On January 9 this year they were accused by the Law society of Kenya (LSK)of harassing a Nakuru based lawyer Fred Nyagaka whom they locked up for several hours at the Nakuru County headquarters courts cells, popularly known as ‘municipal cells’, before his release.
They again were on the spot on February 9 this year when they allegedly harassed and assaulted an official of a Nakuru-based auctioneering firm, a John Muthee.
Muthee was allegedly accosted by the askaris while executing a court order within Nakuru town and allegedly intimidated and assaulted.
He was held up in cells for hours before being released.
The hawkers body wants Governor Mbugua to address the issues raised by traders to enhance small traders business in the town.
Efforts to reach the county executive of trade and tourism were futile as his phone was off.