ln Numbers
Penalties Kes. 47.B
Arrears Kes. 436M
The Parcels- 13,000
By Martin Masai, Editor/ Publisher
The Machakos County Government is waiving Kes 48 billion being arrears for land rates and penalties since 2008.
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| Governor Ndeti |
The waiver was approved by the County Assembly of Machakos after a report was tabled by the Chairperson of the Finance and Revenue Collection Committee of the Assembly Mr. Francis Kyalo Kitaka who is the MCA for Ndalani Ward.
The report followed a request for waiver by the County Finance Minister Onesmus Kuyu. The minister said the waiver was part of the Wavinya Ndeti administration’s strategy to hit its revenue target of Kes. 4 billion “The overall aim of the waiver is to raise more revenue for the County and help the County Government meet its target of Kes. 4.0 billion for the FY 2023/2024.” Said Mr Kuyu in his petition to the assembly.
Machakos County has land rates arrears and penalties totaling to Kes. 48 billion as at January, 2024, comprising of land rate arrears of Kes. 436 million and penalties of Kes. 47.564 billion.
“For, clarity, the CECM was intending to waive the interests and penalties amounting to Kes. 47,564,000,000 on outstanding land rates and also waive fees charged for registration of plots / parcels of land,” said a document seen by The Anchor. The waiver period was scheduled to run for 1 month from May 15(today) to June 14, 2024 for penalties and interests on land rates including fees charged for registration of plots / parcels of land, though the actual dates had not been firmed up by the time of going to press.
However, a list of the defaulters whose arrears are to be waived as not provided to the assembly. The County Executive Committee Member informed the Committee that, the number of plots is based on the information gathered from the Nairobi and Machakos land registries. The parcels are owned by residents and non-residents of Machakos County and some have multiple of parcels of land. The Anchor was informed that the list is composed of the high and mighty in the county, including politicians, lawyers, judges, MCAs, teachers and influential business people.
The waiver covers 13,000 parcels of land whose bio data is captured that is part of the 55,000 parcels registered in the County. The registration has been through persons who have volunteered to register with the revenue system but the information is not complete. This is the reason why the Department was issuing was waiver to encourage registration. There is an estimated 2million parcels of land in the county.
Some of these arrears date back to 2008 when the last valuation roll was done. The Department is in the process of finalizing another valuation roll and spatial planning where all land records will be digitized.
While an explanation was not provided why a government in dire need to revenue had accumulated the staggering arrears, Kuyu told the assembly committee that this was in spite of the fact clearance of land rates was a mandatory requirement for all land transactions such as land transfers and sub-divisions to obtain a clearance certificate before approval.
The assembly was informed though, that the responsible officers at lands had been put on notice to comply with this requirement and the directive was being implemented. Public participation of the Waiver was carried out by the Department of Finance, Economic Planning, Revenue Management and ICT- using Social Media instruments of the county including the website but there were zero responses. It puts to question whether can be claimed that there was real public participation.
The Committee observed that reasons stated for the waiver and the jurisdiction are within the mandate of the County Government.
The committee insisted on the necessity for the County Government to enforce payment of land rates and registration of plots / parcels of land at the point of exchange or trade of the properties to significantly reduce these arrears.
The waiver aims at encouraging those who have arrears on land rates to pay and those who have not registered their plots and parcels of land to do so. The County aims also to increase its revenue collection through the activity. The waiver is a two – pronged strategy to raise revenue, coupled with a call upon those who have not yet obtained certificates of occupation or the necessary approvals for their buildings or construction projects to do so during the period of the proposed waiver.
The waiver is the first to be issues under Governor Wavinya Ndeti. The County has not previously issued a waiver on penalties on irregular and informal developments before, leading to accumulation of large debts on property owners who continue to default on payments.
However, the initiative may be seen as a double edged sword. While the county plans to use to waiver to encourage payment of land rates arrears that land owners have been unable to pay due to high penalties and interests accrued, it will also bring more land owners to the full view of the county revenue framework. True, the waiver encourages land owners in Machakos to register. But these details will enable the authority to capture ownership details for future billing and levy of land rates and other property charges.
The waiver will be applicable to the entire area of jurisdiction of Machakos County Government. The records on lands / plot registration show that there are over two (2) million parcels of land in Machakos County. Out of these only 13,000 parcels of land have their bio data captured by the County Government while 55,000 parcels of land are registered.
The proposed waiver calls upon owners of the unregistered parcels of land to register their parcels with an offer of waiver of plot registration fee as a motivation. This exercise of plot registration will help the County enlarge its data base records of land owners as well as help update the existing records and make easy for the County to bill in the future.
What is most worrying for the county is that the arrears, penalties and interests for property owners have accrued above the value of the properties.
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