Governance and Accountability Activists in Nakuru County are mounting pressure on Governor Susan Kihika to sack Trade and Tourism CECM Stephen Kuria over incompetence.
They argue that the CECM has failed to formulate policies that can help business environment in Nakuru.
Led by Analyst and Accountability Ambassador Ezekiel Kamau, they pointed out that the gap has seen a number of businesses in Nakuru shut down while others are struggling on their knees.
Kamau noted that Nakuru County is steadily becoming a hostile environment for business, and the cries of investors and traders can no longer be ignored.
“Across major municipalities, businesspeople are lamenting under punitive levies, policy inconsistency, and administrative indifference,” he said.
His sentiments coming just days after the recent case of Lady Harriet Akinyi of Tukule Kienyenji Restaurant, located near Karimbux Stage in Nakuru town who went on Tiktok with distress call over the state of her business.
Kamau points out that this is not an isolated incident—it is merely a public manifestation of a wider crisis affecting traders countywide.
He adds that this situation exposes a serious policy and leadership failure within the Department of Trade and Tourism.
The Analyst and Accountability Ambassador says the continued suffering of traders points directly to the incompetence and inertia of the CECM in charge, Mr. Kuria, whose core mandate is to formulate, advise on, and implement policies that promote a conducive business environment.
“It is unacceptable that the Governor is forced to intervene on a case-by-case basis, issuing waivers to individual businesses. Governance is not charity. Policy must be systemic, fair, and predictable, not selective and reactive. Where a single business requires executive intervention to survive, hundreds more are silently collapsing,” he said.
He argues that the Trade and Tourism CECM has clearly failed in offering sound policy guidance and in safeguarding the interests of traders and investors amounting to poor advisory, weak execution, and gross neglect of duty.
For the sake of Nakuru’s economic survival, job creation, and investor confidence, Kamau says the Trade and Tourism CECM must be sacked for incompetence.
“We must speak out. We must whistle-blow.
And we must hold accountable those entrusted to protect the people’s livelihoods but instead preside over their collapse. Enough is enough,” he said.
It should be noted that when Governor Kihika visited te Famous Akinyi’s Restaurant on Thursday January 22, 2026, she stated that her administration will waiver license fee for Akinyi for entire year.
She at the same time urged SMEs to make good use of the County Wezesha Fund that her administration introduced to help empower entrepreneurs.