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{
    "id": 1400513,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400513/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
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    "content": "he will perform county functions. I am happy that the Bill gives the counties the power to employ valuers in the counties dealing with valuation activities and harmonise with the Chief Valuer. Madam Temporary Speaker, my initial fear was that the Chief Government Valuer would be like a prefect or supervisor. However, we should restrict his functions to guidelines and standards. He is to oversee that the standards and policies are undertaken in all the counties. This will set orders across the counties. During the local authorities' era and the counites at the onset, you will be surprised that in urban centres, big establishments and properties, having big activities, would pay less taxes than the common market woman who take their tomatoes, vegetables, onions, and bananas in some trough. This is how it used to be. The market women and men would pay a cess of Kshs100. If you work on the total, Kshs100 for a month meant that the poor woman selling one trough of bananas was paying Kshs3,000 to the county in terms of cess. If you multiplied that by 12 months, the cess totaled less than Kshs36,000. However, you had one property owner in a town paying Kshs10,000 in a year. It meant that the counties taxed the ordinary market women more than prominent establishments. This is why I am supporting this Bill, that after valuation, the property and landowners would be paying rates that are commensurate to what they have. Nonetheless, why do they pay taxes? They pay taxes so that they are given proper services that they need in the urban centres. As our people will be paying taxes, we want to see that the counties are able to give them access in the town centres and that our urban centres have water and firefighting equipment. We would like to see that as these taxes are collected, markets are developed commensurate to the taxes being collected. We want to see that in the urban centres, both solid and water waste is managed. As Sen. Orwoba was saying, we want to see that the storm water management is put in place, so that our towns do not flood. We want to see proper physical planning of our urban centres and the required facilities put in place such as the market lights. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is unfortunate that in some counties the cess and taxes are collected from markets that have not even been compensated. Besides, those markets are still sitting on freehold lands. That somebody owns some land, a market is growing and the counties are collecting taxes. I have one such in my county called Kodumba Market that is still owned by an individual. This is a poor family that has made endless trips to get compensation, yet the Government of the day is collecting cess and taxes from that market. The county governments must also compensate those landowners even as they collect taxes. I also want to touch on the issue of own source revenue. Sometimes I think most of the counties just bring up this issue by quoting the figures of own source revenue, just to balance their budget. It is so exciting to state that County A used to collect B, but now they collect so much. Nonetheless, it stops just at the figures. Are these increases reflected in the outcomes for our people? Do we see such increases getting invested back to our people? Therefore, that brings me to the issue of pending bills of the counties. We The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}