Don’t charge rates on freehold land, MP urges Kahiga

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga has been urged to commit in writing that he will not charge rates on freehold land.

Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu on Tuesday said he also wants the governor to disown the valuation role that led to overvaluing of people’s lands. 

 “Let him communicate in writing and issue an executive order stopping the charging of land rates on freehold land,” he said. Kahiga could as well advertise in newspapers, the legislator added. He spoke in Nyeri town.

Wambugu said this would be an assurance to residents that the government will not take over their land for failing to pay rates.

Affected areas included Gatitu-Muruguru, Kiganjo-Mathari, Kamakwa, Ruringu and Upper Rware, Giakanja in Tetu and Chaka in Kieni, which do not pay rates on freehold land. 

Residents say the land was inherited from their forefathers and no commercial activity is taking place on the land, other than subsistence farming.

As a result, they fear the land may be taken over by the county government if they fail to pay the rates.

Wambugu said the move is discriminatory because only Nyeri Town constituency is targeted.

He told the county government to show people what it has done with the money it collects from residents as taxes and from the national government.

“Let the governor not be in a hurry to look for more money. He should show us what he has done with the money the county gets,” Wambugu said.

He warned that anytime the county passes an oppressive bill, Nyeri residents will demand for reasons.

The lawmaker hit out at MCAs for colluding with the county to oppress residents, saying their silence over the issue and letting such bills pass in the assembly is a show of abandoning those who elected them.

He asked why the five MCAs elected in the constituency supported the move.

 “We elected the five MCAs to represent us at the county assembly so that we are not oppressed by the county government. I want to remind them that they were elected to represent the interests of their wards residents,” he said.

Valuation role is done once every 10 years to correct anomalies that occur in documentation of land.

Governor Kahiga has been on record admitting that some valuations were exorbitant.

The governor also said the people were not involved when the process started. “I think it was not right for us to just bulldoze it the way we have done it. I still think we needed to do it in a different way,” he said.

He said his government agreed with residents on most of the issues.

But some leaders, among them Wambugu, accuse the county chief of being insincere.