Nairobi — Hotels in Eldoret have resolved to stop providing services to delegates attending the Somalia National Peace and Reconciliation Conference and the Igad technical committee team from today over a Sh30 million debt.

The 11 hoteliers said they reached the decision after the Igad technical committee, headed by Mr Elijah Mwangale, failed to clear the nine-week outstanding bills. The hotels listed are Sirikwa, White Castle Motel, Soy Club, Race Course Inn, Nyathiru, Highlands Inn, Asis, Wagon Wheel, Lincoln, Mountain View and Kaptagat.

They posted notices at the hotels suspending services to the delegates from today (Thursday) and referred all questions to the Igad technical committee. "We believe that our businesses are at risk for we cannot finance all bills incurred in the past period," said the notices.

The decision was reached as members of the secretariat, who were mainly drawn from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and security officers also complained of non-payment of allowances for the past two months.

"Our secretariat has virtually collapsed," said a Foreign Affairs ministry official .

A source said the morale of security officers had also gone down and they were not as vigilant as they were when the talks started on October 15 last year. There were fears among residents that insecurity may rise because of the un co-ordinated security occasioned by the financial problems at the peace conference.

The hoteliers said in a letter addressed to Mr Mwangale that, he owed them an apology for inconveniences arising from the unfulfilled promises. They demanded that all outstanding bills in all hotels be settled and that future bills be settled one month in advance if services were to resume.

Heads of Somali militias were said to be attending talks at the ministry of foreign affairs offices in Nairobi and the delegates present said they hoped the matter would be resolved.

Transporters too said that they will stop services on Monday if they will not have been paid. They added that about 20 of them were each owed more than Sh650,000 .