HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1495071,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1495071/?format=api",
"text_counter": 197,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "national Government to ensure that Kenyans get the right services from this top officer who will be serving both levels of government. We also added that the person must be a full member of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) and in good standing. We have had officers holding high positions in this country, but they are not in good standing with their professional bodies. We felt as the Mediation Committee that we need a professional who has good records from their professional bodies. Lastly, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need the Chief Government Valuer to be an officer who meets the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution. This is a constitutional requirement. If you are going to oversee valuation and rating in this Republic, county governments are going to look up to you for guidelines. Of course, these are guidelines that the Chief Government Valuer will not make by themselves, but in consultation with county governments and all the professional bodies. The officer must meet the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution. We do not want to end up with an officer who will abuse the rights of Kenyans. So, we thought this must be part of the qualifications. In Clause 24A, we established the Office of the Chief Government Valuer, who, as I have said, will be recruited competitively by the Public Service Commission through a competitive process. He or she will be the principal advisor on issues of valuation and rating. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have indicated in this House that I happen to have worked in the County Government of Homa Bay. My first posting was as a County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Lands, Housing, Physical Planning and Urban Development. I dealt with the complex issues initially of the houses that were transferred from the defunct local authorities. Specifically, in Homa Bay, that was housing from the southern Nyanza, of course, now in Homa Bay, the then Homa Bay County Council. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we had houses as big as two to three-bedroomed houses, on their own plots. Nevertheless, it was a pity that some of those houses were being charged Kshs1,000. Therefore, how are the counties going to raise revenue to sustain even the servicing of these houses? Our actions were limited to the fact that valuation had not been done for a long time. You could not even review those charges without a valuation being done. We had houses for the national Government and for the county Government, and that is uniform in all the other county municipalities. This Bill will deal with some of those challenges. County governments have also dealt with the challenge of getting a valuer to value pieces of land when they are going to acquire land. The example I will give is of a county where I come from. We had one government valuer who was servicing the whole of Kisii County, Nyamira County, Homa Bay County and Migori County. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you had to chase him all over the place and yet, we have valuers graduating from the university. Consequently, even when county governments have employed these valuers, there are certain responsibilities they cannot take because of lack of harmonisation of rating. Hence, this chief government valuer, is going to set guidelines that will be rolled down and undertaken by county governments. 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."
}