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{
    "id": 1400514,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400514/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "would be happy as a Senate that as the own source revenue is increasing, we would also see that the counties are paying their pending bills. There is always a tired excuse that counties give, and it is very easy. I have often heard it with the Nairobi City County, that the pending bills we have were bills that were accrued from the defunct authorities. To me, that is a big lie because even then, when the counties came in, we were seeing the pending bills increasing without being paid. I am keen on the issue of the pending bills is because it should be a first charge on budgets. However, we do not see them being paid. We also talk about the aging system, where you should be able to pay what was earlier committed in counties. However, we see the pending bills increasing. I have said here that I was a County Executive Committee Member (CECM) of lands and housing. When the counties came into being, it was so pathetic. There were houses that had been built by the defunct local authorities and were inherited by the Homa Bay County Government. We saw people living in two to three-bedroom houses paying as little as Kshs800 shillings when the market value of such houses in that town was over Kshs20,000. This was because no valuation had been done from the 1970s. There was no basis for increasing the collections from those houses. Madam Temporary Speaker, I support the National Rating Bill (National Assembly Bills No.55 of 2022). I support the fact that valuation is now being standardised and harmonised. There are set guidelines that are going to be used by the Chief Government Valuer to oversee how valuation will go about in all the counties. We call upon the counties to be as consultative as possible because that is also indicated in the Bill. I am happy that this will be a participatory process. As the counties collect, we would like to see services being given back to the people from the collections that they make. I support."
}