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{
    "id": 1268255,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1268255/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Marakwet West, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Timothy Kipchumba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very important debate on the National Rating Bill. Before joining Parliament, I worked as a Legal Counsel in Elgeyo Marakwet County, and the biggest challenge that we have in this country is duplication of legislation or competing pieces of legislation. The quality of legislation is determined by uniformity. This country devolved law-making powers to the county governments. What has happened is that each county government is making laws to suit its own purpose. Each county has its own legislation. For instance, if you buy land that is adjacent to another county, when taken to court and there are different legislations governing a subject matter, it becomes a challenge for the court to address that particular situation. We also realise that the biggest challenge that bedevils county governments is collection of revenue. The old source of revenue in the county governments has been a very big challenge. They rely heavily on the National Government for revenue. If we have uniform legislation in the country, there will be an equal application of the law. This will cure the problem of every county government coming up with its own law which, if subjected to the national law, at some point, it becomes incompetent. There is an interesting provision that I have seen in Clause 72 of that Bill, which states that a county legislation regarding this matter shall be in compliance with this Act. Since we have several legislations in the county governments, each of which applies the law, we will have a situation where if there is conflict between a county government rating on property and the national law, it becomes clear that under Clause 72(a), the national law shall prevail. In my opinion, that is a big achievement by this proposed legislation, which will give a clear hierarchy of laws on the rating of property in this country. Another added advantage to this legislation is the creation of the National Rating Tribunal which, if put in place, will help in solving matters of property rates. The problem that we have in this country is the backlog of cases in our courts. If we have a tailor-made tribunal that is specifically meant to address disputes of property rates, it will assist in solving disputes in this country."
}