Drama ensued in Athi River town on Wednesday after tax men found all the shops they targeted to conduct crack downs on closed down.
The officers from the Machakos County Government’s inspectorate department had turned up to make an ambush on traders in the town who had not serviced their single permit businesses with the government.
Businessman George Onditi who addressed the press in the town few hours after the botched crackdown said the information was leaked by certain employees of the same government making the traders close shops and vacate their business premises.
“We were informed by some of the Machakos County Government’s employees that it had planned to make an intensive ambush on those who had not renewed their permits this year, the information circulated very fast due to effective networks of the traders leading to the successful evasion of the tax collectors.
Onditi said the traders’ closed shops to avoid being harassed by inspectorate officers from the government.
He said the officers were fond of taking advantage to mishandle and extort the traders whenever they conducted crack downs in the town.
Onditi said the traders were tired of getting forcibly pushed into the government’s vehicles whenever they were arrested as their property destroyed just because they had not remitted the taxes in time.
He said the officers should be trained to execute their mandate with decorum and professionalism.