City Hall, the headquarters of the Nairobi City County Government.
It's all systems go in Nairobi County as Governor Johnson Sakaja's administration goes after land rate defaulters from Tuesday targeting to claim billions of money.
The county says enough is enough and its patience has run out as thousands of defaulters remain silent after the grace period for waivers expired.
Speaking to Nation, the Chief Officer for Revenue Administration in Nairobi, Tiras Wainaina Njoroge, said that the county has exhausted all the avenues trying to reach out to defaulters, with little effort of commitment from them.
“We have people running businesses across the city, who have big residence around the city and have not been making their payments despite us giving waivers, increasing the grace period for them to comply,” Mr Njoroge said.
“Our officers were out in the field marking out non-compliant buildings. We have the list, we know the locations, and logistically we are ready. After a full day of printing banners and notices, we are set to start clamping down from 8am tomorrow (Tuesday),” he added.
Mr Njoroge stated that land rate debts in the City has grown to almost Sh50 billion, and that they are targeting to collect more than Sh10 billion in their crackdown in the next two months.
“We have sent even messages to people, encouraging them to come and make payments. We have even considered that there are people who might be working from Monday to Friday, and we have left the customer care service open for Saturdays to ensure that people can come in and comply. We have even gone door to door,” he said.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja during an interview at his office in Nairobi on April 26, 2024.
During their mapping exercise, Mr Njororge said that majority of defaulters are from high-end estates such as Runda, Kileleshwa, Kilimani and other places.
“Funny enough, we have quite a large number of people in zones within Westlands, Runda, Kitisuru, Mountain View, Dagoretti North, Kileleshwa, Kilimani, CBD, South C, Kamukunji and Eastleigh.”
Tenants in the properties which have defaulted will see county officials collecting monthly rent from them directly until the debts for such properties are fully recovered.
“We are going to take all options, we are going to write to the banks to freeze their accounts, and we are going to auction these properties, especially for the chronic defaulters who have very large amount of debs,” Mr Njoroge said, adding that the county will ensure that its actions are within the National Rating Act, 2024.
According to the data from the county, out of 256,000 land parcels, only about 50,000 are up to date on payments.
“It’s a sad affair yet the rest still expect services from the county. We have given them ample time. Now we are moving forward with enforcement.”
