Traders from Machakos County have moved to court to stop being taxed by the county government citing misuse of taxpayers' money by Governor Alfred Mutua.
This is according to the Kenya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Machakos Branch chairman Kioko Kitheka who said the move seeks to bar Mutua's administration from collecting business fees for single business permit licenses from the traders.
Addressing the press outside Katheka Catholic Church after service in Mwala sub-county on Sunday, Kitheka faulted the county government for failing to take its roles seriously.
He said Governor Mutua has been slow in responding to issues affecting the locals.
"The county governor has been misusing our taxes and whenever we give him our grievances he turns a deaf ear to them while we continue suffering under his regime," Kitheka said.
Kitheka said the governor has been traversing the country in the name of benchmarking thus wasting taxpayers money.
He said no business premise should pay licenses since the governor hasn't shown any tangible work with the taxes.
Kitheka revealed that they had also gone to court to get an order barring the implementation of the Finance Bill 2017/2018 since it has a lot of mistakes.
In 2014, the Machakos County Business Community staged a peaceful demonstration protesting the county Finance Bill enacted into law after a meeting to with the governor to discuss the new levies introduced failed to materialize.
The business owners closed their premises and marched to the MCA offices to present their grievances, before marching to Governor Mutua's office to demand his stand on the new levies.