More than seven hundred home and land owners within Kilifi County are waging a battle to pay fair taxes on property after the County Government conducted new cadastral assessments last year, which the local Chamber of Commerce said did not follow credible and equanimity criteria.

This is why we had already taken action at the time to warn all owners of houses, villas and land to register with the Chamber of Commerce and take part in a class action which, being so many, could be dealt with at minimal cost to the lawyers.
In the end there were 765 signatories to the petition that went to court, but during the proceedings that will take place next February 12 next year, it also emerged that the re-evaluation exercise affected only 30% of the owners, or just 13 thousand.
This was reported to the media a few days ago by the Chief Officer of County Land, James Nguzo.
"If all property owners paid the fees," Nguzo admitted, "the County Government would rake in more revenue. In last year's valuation exercise of all taxable properties, the County registered 46,000 properties. This means that only about 30% of property owners pay taxes.
Nguzo, during his meeting with the press, as reported by The Star newspaper, confirmed that 765 owners have filed complaints with the County Government claiming that their properties have been overvalued.
"In addition, many urban centres in the county are inhabited by thousands of squatters who have built expensive houses but do not pay land rates because they do not have property documents," he added.
Needless to say, a request for payment that concerns only one in three owners should be considered illegal and if everyone paid the right amount, taxes would be much lower and services rendered could improve.
On the basis of these arguments, we take the Kilifi County Chamber of Commerce's appeal for all property and land owners in the County to continue to pursue the case in court.
" We are therefore trying to impress upon the County to prepare a valid legal inclusive indiscriminatory valuation roll.
You will all appreciate this process is a financial heavy burden – is written in the statement - Let alone the time and sacrifice invoked by some of our members. The financial implication in this issue is estimated between 3 to 4 millions shillings. We have already spent 1 million shillings so far. The process is going to be long and expensive. We are therefore appealing to all people to come forward and donate funds for this fight for a fair and just valuation roll. Imagine again if all the plot owners contributed handsomely to this project. We are appealing to all of you to participate in this exercise. You can send your contributions through our bank and paybill details attached. Your participation will be highly appreciated. Please note this will benefit all of us in the long run. The County shall collect a lot more revenue with lower rates and thereby offer better service to us. It will be a WIN WIN situation for all of us but to get there let us pull together”.

Kenya National Chambers of Commerce & Industry (KILIFI)
Co-Operative Bank – Kilifi
01141466598000
Mpesa Paybill: 400200