Monitor, UBA and Equity Bank, among offices closed over failure to pay rent

Business owners in Mbale City were on Monday left stranded, following the closure of their premises on Sunday night by the city enforcement officers over failure to pay ground rent and property tax, including trading licences.

When this reporter passed through the streets of Mbale City on Monday, April 22, you could see thousands of people stranded and standing in a picketing manner with the majority of them hauling complaints at the Government for not helping.

One affected person, an elderly woman in her 50s cried to the government saying; “in Kampala, people are closing businesses while for us here who want to work the city officials don’t want us to work.”

DailyExpress understood that some of the taxes in question are paid by owners of buildings while others are paid by business owners, especially trading licences.

An insurance official who preferred anonymity so that he could speak freely expressed his dissatisfaction with the city officials, saying it is totally wrong to close people’s businesses on the night of Sunday, wondering why they are afraid of coming during the day and we hear from them he lamented 

Our efforts to get a comment from the Mbale industrial city mayor, His Worship Masaba Muhamood went unanswered, while Joseph Wamembo the chief finance officer of the city said he was just arriving from upcountry and is not fully updated about the closure.

Among the offices which we found locked by Monday morning included buildings housing notable banks such as UBA bank, Equity Bank, and Daily Monitor offices.

The authorities of Mbale City in an effort to enforce the collection of dues used seals which makes it a criminal offence if traders attempt to break it.

At the time of filing this story, the offices of Daily Monitor in Mbale town were still under seal and their workers were seen stranded outside making frantic calls to their bosses in Kampala.

Mr Fred Wambede, the Monitor Bureau Chief in Elgon Region told this publication that he had talked to the authorities of the CIty Council and that they were going to open the office to allow the publication’s daily activities to proceed normally.