It was the first such action by traders since the country became independent from Britain in 1963.

Protesters shut down their businesses early and converged on foot or in vehicles on Kenya Revenue Authority offices.

They were responding to a call by the United Business Association to protest against threats by authorities to arrest traders who do not comply with the new measures.

Traders demonstrated in the capital, Nairobi, in Kenya's port city of Mombasa and in the western town of Kitale, which is a key centre for the sale of agricultural goods in the country.

The United Business Association said in paid advertisements in local newspapers Wednesday that tax authorities have this month been illegally threatening their members with arrest and charges, despite several court cases challenging their new measures.

No Kenya Revenue Authority official or finance ministry official was available for comment.

The Finance Ministry was expected to make a statement in parliament later Thursday on the issue.

In October 2004, the Kenya Revenue Authority said that it was introducing machines that would generate electronic tamperproof records of sales to avoid the practice in the past where many sales went unrecorded and therefore untaxed.

The authority said that the machines are compulsory for most kinds of business.

In 2005, businesses went to court to challenge the way the authority was implementing the new measures.

The High Court issued a temporary order to stop the authority implementing its new measures, an order that still stands.

Tax authorities have failed in the past to meet their targets of collecting sales tax by as much as 52 per cent because, they claim, of the various loopholes and illegal means businesses have used to avoid paying sales tax.

- Nampa-AP

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