City Hall to freeze accounts, auction properties over Sh50 billion land rates arrears

Starting Tuesday, Nairobi County will freeze the bank accounts and auction the properties of land rate defaulters who have failed to pay their dues.

This move comes after the expiration of a grace period offered to defaulters. County officials say they have no choice but to act, with the total land rates debt now approaching Sh50 billion.

Tiras Wainaina Njoroge, the Revenue Administration Chief Officer, on Monday, explained that despite multiple waivers and extended grace periods, many residents and business owners have continued to ignore their responsibilities.

"We have people running businesses across the city, who have big residences around the city and have not been making their payments despite us giving waivers and increasing the grace period for them to comply," Njoroge said.

"Our officers were out in the field marking out non-compliant buildings. We have the list, we know the locations, and logistically we are ready.”

The county is aiming to collect Sh10 billion in the next two months through the crackdown.

Efforts to encourage payments, including sending messages and extending customer care hours on weekends, have not been successful.

"We have even gone door to door," Njoroge added.

The mapping exercise has shown that most of the defaulters live in high-end estates like Runda, Kileleshwa, and Kilimani.

As part of the action, the county will request banks to freeze the accounts of chronic defaulters and auction their properties to recover the owed amounts.

"We are going to write to the banks to freeze their accounts, and we are going to auction these properties, especially for the chronic defaulters who have very large debts," Njoroge added.

Land rates make up about 25 per cent of Nairobi's annual revenue, and despite other revenue sources like parking fees and building permits, the county has been facing a loss due to late or missed payments.

Nairobi County has also granted rent waivers for residents in county-owned houses in neighbourhoods like Maringo, Uhuru, and Buruburu, but the financial shortfall continues.

According to Section 7 of the Nairobi City County Waiver Administration Act of 2013, any rent waiver granted must be reported to the County Assembly and published in the gazette notice within 14 days of its issuance.

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