Kangundo town residents and business owners have called upon the Machakos County government to review the escalated license fees that has allegedly brought down the town’s development.
The business people have complained that the town council officers were demanding high licenses that have caused closure of several small entrepreneurs.
They are therefore calling on the county government through Machakos County Finance Minister Elizabeth Nzioka to intervene urgently.
Speaking on Tuesday after a routine meeting of business operators, Joseph Musyimi, one of the business persons in the town said that the high license fees was driving them out of business.
“High license fee is an immense damaging factor that is felt from the onset of a business, during registration, during the business up to its closure. Here, the license fees have been rising and it has become hard to meet the cost and make any remarkable profits, which have led to closure of some businesses in the town,” said Musyimi.
The operators further stated that this was impacting negatively on the growth of the town, and very few people are willing to invest their in Kangundo, compared to other constituencies like Matungulu and Kathiani, where the license fees is relatively fair.
The operators made it clear that they were looking forward to fair payments and making the town an attractive market and hence the best way to make this happen was for the county government to ensure no corruption in the license fee payments so as to ease the burden of the heightened costs by putting in place the right measures and regulations.