Leaders seek to raise land rates for big ranchers
What you need to know:
- The Laikipia County government has proposed to increase land rates for large scale agricultural land owners and ranches by more than 3,000 per cent.
- Those affected by the new rates are mainly land owners involved in tourism, wildlife conservation and livestock ranching and some have more than 100,000 acres.
The Laikipia County government has proposed to increase land rates for large scale agricultural land owners and ranches by more than 3,000 per cent.
A Finance Bill tabled in the county assembly proposes to raise the rate from Sh3.50 to Sh100 per acre for ranches and agricultural holdings which are more than 100 acres.
People with between 51 and 100 acres have been paying Sh50 while small agricultural land between one acre and 50 acres were paying Sh100 per acre.
AFFECTED
Those affected by the new rates are mainly land owners involved in tourism, wildlife conservation and livestock ranching and some have more than 100,000 acres.
Recently, the county government doubled rents for its houses. A three-bedroom house in Mugambi estate in Nanyuki town whose rent used to be Sh7,500 will now be Sh15,000.
In his address to the county assembly on Tuesday, Governor Joshua Irungu said the Sh2.3 billion allocation from the national government was inadequate to finance the budget.
“We also believe there is widespread laxity and dishonesty among a cross-section of the revenue department,” he said.
“We are putting in place concrete and strict measures to enhance our revenue collection to enable us bridge the budget deficit,” he told the members.
Among those measures is computerisation of revenue collection.
