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{
    "id": 1268206,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1268206/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "new owners of property. How will, for example, someone who owns a studio on the fortieth floor of a building in Ziwani pay rates to the county government? On the fortieth floor, he will expect to have clean water for drinking, flashing his toilet and for his shower. Therefore, he must pay something to the County Government of Nairobi for it to provide clean water and sewer services. Those of us who come from rural and peri-urban constituencies should bear in mind the issues I am speaking about. I hope the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Lands - who will second - bears in mind the issues I have spoken to on land that is used for agriculture, so that we also secure and encourage land use for agriculture. When it becomes fashionable and profitable to only build brick-and-mortar, all our agricultural land will end up being used for brick-and-mortar and we will eventually become a net importer of foodstuffs. Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit a farm in Taita Taveta County, and I was impressed with the potential of agriculture in the arid and semi-arid areas of our country. The soil in Taita Taveta is fertile. All it lacks is water. With provision of water, we can turn around our country and make it food secure. However, as we do that, we must bear in mind what will happen to our country10-50 years to come if we discourage our farmers and young people from practising agriculture through taxes that we levy on farm implements. I must thank the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning because they were deliberate during the Finance Bill. I keep repeating that the Finance Act is vilified without paying attention to the good propositions that are in it. Farm inputs and implements have been zero- rated and some taxes have been removed from them to encourage people to get into farming. As we consider this Bill, I hope that the Departmental Committee on Lands will ensure that we safeguard agricultural land during the Committee of the whole House so that our counties do not only levy rates on properties. Kiambu County is a good example of where there is no distinction between land that is agricultural and land that is for other developments. Farmers are now opting to subdivide their land to build houses because that is the only way they can pay the rates that are being levied by their county government. So, there must be a distinction. A farmer who is growing vegetables in Kikuyu or avocados in Murang’a should not be encouraged to get into housing and subdivide his land into 30 feet by 70 feet plots to generate more money to pay the rates of the county government. Instead, he should grow avocados or vegetables and pay affordable rates to his county government. I propose that the property rates for land set aside for agriculture be almost zero or negligible. It should be 0.0000005 per cent."
}