Only 30 per cent of property owners in Kilifi county pay rates to the county government, Lands chief officer James Nguzo has said.
He said this has resulted in low revenue collection by the county government.
Nguzo said a huge chunk of the Sh1 billion raised by the county government annually comes from about 13,000 properties. He said if all property owners paid rates, the county government would rake in more revenue.
He said the county government last year conducted a valuation exercise for all rateable properties and registered 46,000 such properties.
“This means that only about 30 per cent of the property owners are paying rates to the county government,” he said.
Nguzo was speaking to journalists at the Takaye Multipurpose Hall in Malindi subcounty where a mobile valuation court had been sitting, to hear objections lodged by property owners, who are not happy with the valuation drive.
He said 765 property owners lodged complaints with the county government, claiming their properties had been over-valued.
Nguzo said the ratepayers captured in the draft valuation roll do not include property owned by squatters on government and private land.
Many urban centres in the county, he explained, are inhabited by thousands of squatters who have built expensive houses but are not paying land rates because they do not have ownership documents.