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"content": "As Sen. Cherarkey has indicated, I used to work for Homa Bay County Government. Precisely, I worked as the CECM for Land. Valuation has been a big challenge to counties since the onset of devolution. While I was working in the counties in 2013, only one government valuer handled Kisii, Nyamira, Migori and Homa Bay counties. This was replicated in all other counties to the extent that when counties wanted to do anything that involved valuation, you had to book the valuer. Remember, he had a schedule set out in all four counties. Each county kept on waiting. It ended up that this valuer was like a god figure in the county because he served at whim. He would come for a few minutes. I am happy this is being provided for in the National Ratings Bill we discussed. I support the idea that a Chief Government Valuer will have a restricted mandate. There needs to be a set of standards and guidelines that should be harmonised across the counties. We have the 47 county governments and the national Government. All counties must do the same in terms of standards and guidelines for valuation. There is a need for a chief government valuer, but this does not mean 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."
},
{
"id": 1400513,
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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."
},
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"id": 1400514,
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"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."
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Mumma",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
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"content": " Thank you very much. Sen. Maanzo, proceed."
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
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"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute on this very important Bill. Unfortunately, the titling of the Bill is the National Rating Bill (National Assembly Bills No.55 of 2022). Therefore, it has been prepared and most probably public participation done by the National Assembly as if it is for national purposes. Clause 55 seeks to repeal Cap 266 and 267. Cap 267 was a Local Authorities Act, which dealt with the old authorities and Cap 266 had something to do with the ratings. I agree that years have moved and we are now in devolution time. We should now deal with devolution. As a Senate, one of the things that should happen in this Bill is to subject it again to public participation at the counties, so that the counties have their say. The National Assembly and the Senate are making a law for the counties. I 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."
},
{
"id": 1400517,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
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"content": "believe there was no sufficient public participation during the National Assembly proceedings. Madam Temporary Speaker, it should be a culture that when a law is being made for the counties and it comes to the Senate from the National Assembly, then we should do public participation, so that we can make proper amendments to this particular law, so that it gives meaning to the law itself. When you look at where delegated legislation is going to originate, it says the Cabinet Secretary may make regulations generally for the better carrying out or effect of the provisions of this Act. It does not say which Cabinet Secretary. So, who is the decision-maker on this? Is it the Cabinet Secretary for Land, Environment and Natural Resources or the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations? Most probably, it means the Cabinet Secretary for Land, Environment and Natural Resources, but that needs to be clarified further. We have seen quite a lot of times, almost every governor putting up a very big banner. I have seen that from the Governor of Nairobi City County and Kiambu County. Then they run many advertisements in the radio and television stations that they are going to exempt leasing taxes for a number of months and then they extend from December to January, then March. I believe these counties are losing revenue. This advertisement is going to who? Is it to the national Government institutions that have failed to pay land rates for such a long time? What happens to stadia, which occupy land in the counties and they pay land rates? Which is the Ministry in charge of this now that sports is devolved? Then, automatically, it means that the county government has something to do with that. Madam Temporary Speaker, while you were contributing, you had drawn our attention to Section 27 of this Bill, which is even worse. This particular section makes nonsense of the whole of this Bill. It subjects Kenyans to the over taxation which we see going on in the country currently. When you make laws loosely - that is why I am saying, proper public participation is important. You have a subtitle that says, “Declaration of Ratable Areas.” Then, you go ahead to say, all areas within a county government shall be ratable areas for purposes of this Act. First of all, it is a national Act because also, the national Government makes ratings at the national level. Then now, you have such a law being enacted for the counties, meaning it will be effected everywhere. It means every single agricultural land can be rated and there will be taxes from it. It means houses, towns and markets can be rated. Just as Sen. Cherarkey had said, you can rate and then overdo it. You can actually tax the rich less than the poor. You heard the contribution of Sen. Ogola that, in fact, the mama mboga selling vegetables and paying some monies every day in the market ends up paying more money than somebody who owns buildings worth billions of shillings in a market or a town. You need to balance so that there is no discrimination. The moment this rating becomes discriminative, then it becomes unconstitutional. Whether you beat up Sen. Omtatah or kill him, somebody will still go to court and say that this Act is unconstitutional. It does not matter whether Sen. Omtatah is alive or dead, his spirit lives in very many Kenyans. He works for very many Kenyans for the benefit of the nation. 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."
},
{
"id": 1400518,
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"text_counter": 206,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
"slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
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"content": "Therefore, if we are making an unconstitutional law, which ends up being discriminatory, then we are making a law that the courts will easily find to be unconstitutional, even when there are moving suo motto without being moved by Sen. Omtatah, any other Senator or any other Kenyan. Therefore, we have to make a law, which is within the Constitution. When you come to the tribunal, there are many other laws which compare as tribunals. The Cooperatives Act and the Sacco Regulations Act have tribunals where a magistrate sits and the magistrate is aided by experts in that area. Here, you have a tribunal, which is unconstitutional with a membership of 18 people. Even the best practices of the world has a maximum of 9 members. Even the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has a maximum. So, a membership of seven members for a tribunal will make sense. As a Senate, we need to rise to the occasion and agree to amend this Act thoroughly, first of all, for the benefit of devolution, and secondly, for the benefit of the country. When you raise this money, some counties have tried, they have come up with pay bill numbers. Counties such as Machakos and Makueni have done that. Every other payment to the county is made through a pay bill number. You can then collect monies and manage them in a better way. Madam Temporary Speaker, many times when you send people to the market to collect cash from traders, how truthful are they? Even when you use receipts, some of them will even print extra receipts, raise money and go home with it. In the evening, they surrender little to the county. The process of banking that money in cash takes a very honest person. When it comes to corruption, the nature of human beings has become worse than Satan. If you want to check corruption, beginning from the national Government to the county governments, the EACC has a bigger job to do. It should be strengthened enough, not guided from a corner and not malicious. This is because most of its prosecutions go for over 10 years and its investigations or by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) acquit people on a no-case-to- answer, under Section 210, before they are even put on defence. The whole trial against a governor, former governor or a Government official ends up being a charade or a political witch-hunt. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have to draw the lines and EACC has to be very independent. The prosecuting bodies, as required by the Constitution, have to be independent so that you do not end up with a sham prosecution and waste Government resources. At least, there must be a station of EACC in every county where members of public can write anonymous letters and give evidence on who is corrupt for further investigations. We need to deal with corruption in the counties because some of it is done without the knowledge of the governors. Due to perpetual successions, you will find a governor inheriting pending bills that are corruptly made, unconstitutional, and were for activities not meant for the county. You have a former governor abandoning pending bills of illegal activities to an incoming governor on the basis 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."
},
{
"id": 1400519,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400519/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
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"content": "of perpetual succession. The new governor bears responsibility of the former governor and it then becomes very complicated. Madam Temporary Speaker, when this matter is brought to us, we refer it to investigative agencies, and you end up tainting the name of a new governor, who means well and you leave the old governor who has stolen and looted to go scot-free. We must relook at the whole idea of pending bills and raising a lot of money. When we raise these monies, this Bill does not come up with proper measures of dealing with own source revenue. If it is properly done, own resource revenue is a lot. It can sustain counties in an immense manner and can complete some of the activities in counties for the benefit of the people. Madam Temporary Speaker, when these monies are raised, we have weak mechanisms as to how we have rated because we have put all the money together in an account. You hear of counties with 100 bank accounts. What are they for? A county government needs not more than three bank accounts based on what it does. It is a better way of managing and accountability. If you have 22, 10 or 12 County Executive Committee Members (CECMs), why should the county have 100 bank accounts? This Bill is meant for raising money for the counties. When you raise money, there must be a proper way of the money getting accounted for. If you weaken county assemblies, they will not be strong enough to check the governor properly. You know, when all the processes have been completed, it is the Senate that deals with auditors' reports, where audit queries and certain things have not been done well. There is a lot of money being lost in counties even without the knowledge of governors because of lack of proper legal mechanisms. We have now been presented with a very weak Bill from the National Assembly, proposed by the Executive, without clarity on which Cabinet Secretary will squarely deal with and can make regulations that will make effect. It means we are failing as Parliament before we even end up with a system for the counties. Ccounties’ money-collecting measures should be effective, so that CECMs and people who collect monies are accountable. That will ensure that the right people are levied properly, without leaving out the bourgeoisie in the counties who own properties, but pay very little yet people in the markets and those who walk around doing the so- called reja reja business are paying more. Small industrialists in the counties that grind maize to produce flour spend little time. In terms of value addition, they are paying more than somebody who collects commercial rent every month. This Bill is important, but the Senate has got a lot to do during the Third Reading. The Senate Majority Leader performs an important role in this House. He is now required to co-sponsor this Bill with the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, whom I have a lot of respect for. Having been to Alliance Boys, in Parliament for three terms and dealt with issues of finance, he is fairly experienced. It is good that we have proper records of comparison of what happened in the National Assembly. Is there need of having done proper public participation on this? I 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."
},
{
"id": 1400520,
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"text_counter": 208,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
"slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
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"content": "strongly propose that we send this Bill again for public participation. Otherwise, we will be making an illegal law as a House. Whether Sen. Omtatah is beaten up or not, this is a matter we must go back to court to deal with, including any other Act we have passed without redoing public participation as a Senate, especially when it originates and co- sponsored by the two Majority Leaders. When our own Senate Majority Leader co-sponsors, he must have a voice and direction in co-sponsoring a Bill of Parliament. He should not just rush it to the Senate to get a rubberstamp and forward it to the Executive for signature, when we know well that on the face of it, it is a defective law, especially Clause 27. Madam Temporary Speaker, I can only support this Bill with amendments. As it is, it is a bad law for the country. We have been in business of passing bad laws that originate from the National Assembly. This should be the last one. We should put down our foot, make the necessary amendments, call for mediation and make sure we have a law that is best for the counties and Kenyans. I thank you."
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