Kajiado has laid the ground to collect Sh1.5 billion from new land rates revenue.
The devolved unit has set out elaborate measures to collect the rates from holders of freehold titles in a new drive that majorly targets those who have changed land use.
Speaking to the Star on the phone, Governor Joseph Ole Lenku said many plot owners in key major urban centres will be slapped with arrears for the last eight years.
He said those being incited not to pay land rates are accepting to be misled by people who are pursuing petty interests.
"We are following the law that exists. The land has been mapped as a major resource in the county and, therefore, it must give us the requisite revenue related to activities on it," Lenku said.
He said he will not allow residents to be misled in a matter that is in the law having been passed by the county assembly.
"We are also at a very advanced stage of issuing title deeds to those who have allotment letters," the governor said.
"They are also being incited not to pay the required fees for them to get the land titles, which is absurd."
He said that the Sh1.5 billion being targeted in land rates revenue is over and above the ordinary revenue being collected from other sources.
The governor said the highest the county government has ever collected was Sh1.2 billion, in 2018, which is a far cry from its potential.
Last year, he said, the county collected less than a billion shillings, a scenario attributed to the electioneering period.
"Now the county government has bounced back with plans to expand the tax base, land rates being one of the key targets," he said.
