Transport was for the better part of Tuesday morning paralyzed in Kitui bus park after Kinatwa Sacco vehicles blocked the entrance and exit of the Buspark.
According to one of the touts who operates at the bus park, he woke up to his usual business only to find that Kinatwa Sacco had blocked the bus park. Police were forced to pluck out the number plates of some of the vehicles belonging to Kinatwa Sacco.
One of the businessmen from Kitui who spoke to Kamba Insights blamed the incident for causing confusion and delay in the bus park where business was brought to a standstill.
“I ordered my goods from Nairobi and were to be delivered by Kinatwa Sacco but they have not opened their offices and I don’t know what to sell today since I don’t have stock.” Sombe a businessman said.
The Business Community in Kitui town called the two Sacco’s to sit down to come up with a solution since they depend on passengers who buy in their shops and eateries.
Swaleh another Businessman said, “I am a businessman from this bus park, my family depends on my business but now I don’t have customers due to this chaos. We are requesting the county government to intervene once and for all and everything to go back to normal. “
Chairman Kinatwa Sacco Joseph kitheka speaking on the reason for the strike stated that “What we want from the Kinatwa Prestige is that we want them to scrap off our green color from their vehicles, we blocked the bus park to push County government of Kitui to revoke their (Prestige) license.”
He also disclosed that even the court ordered them to drop the ‘Kinatwa’ name in Kinatwa Prestige and look for an alternative name.
“This is one of the largest Sacco’s in Lower Eastern and over 2,000 families depend on us directly and we can’t have injustices within Kitui County and the county keeps ignoring us and we are paying revenue to them,” he added.
Our efforts to reach out to Kinatwa Prestige officials didn’t bear any fruits as they said they won’t speak about the issue.
On May 29th, Transport was also paralyzed in Kitui Bus Park. Kinatwa Sacco and the new Prestige Sacco have been wrangling on who should be managing the main stage to Nairobi in the Kitui Bus Park.
