Kumba: City Council seals businesses at unholy hours of the night

Most shop owners and proprietors of provision stores at the Kumba I municipality with headquarters at Njuki woke up on the morning of Wednesday, June 8, 2022, and in the days following to discover that their business places had been sealed overnight by the Kumba I Council authorities for the non-payment of business tax, popularly known here "patente."

The sealing of shops and stores in the Kumba main market by the City Council, and the sealing of stores in the markets and the quarters at night by the Kumba 1, 2, and 3, councils have become the new normal in Kumba and meme Division as a whole within the context of the Anglophone crisis.

Municipal Council staff and even government taxation officials resist carrying out this exercise during the day for fear of the faceless separatists.

All information is transmitted to the defaulting businessman by the seal carrying the respective council stamp.

The seal reminds the business owner why his business has been sealed by the council and a further reminder that he or she should report to the council concerned to pay his patente.

Very few businessmen respect the council seals, as most of them, the next morning take off the council seals enter their shops and commence attending to customers with impunity. Last year, the Kumba 2 council, under chief Mbachu Jacob Kay carried out a similar exercise.

The council seals were later unsealed overnight the same following alleged threats by separatists.

This situation has placed the Councils in Meme in a dilemma as most of them are unable to pay their staff. All the four councils are owing their staff several months in arrears with one owing as much as 17 months.