This archive report was first published on 21 July 2019.
Kenya's Treasury has unveiled a policy to support enhanced devolved revenue, which calls for new valuation rolls for land and wants county governments to ensure that all titled land is ratable.
Published on July 21, 2019, the policy was prepared by counties with oversight of the National Land Commission (NLC) in consultation with the Ministry of Lands.
According to the policy, 'in each county, all land parcels should be declared as ratable, with an appropriate form of rating being applied to each parcel.'
The policy also calls for an update to the agricultural rental value form of rating in response to evolving use of rural land, for example for tourism and conservancy.
Additionally, the policy suggests that trading and market centres need to be planned, surveyed and registered as a matter of urgency so as to have them rated.
Earlier this year, Treasury secretary Henry Rotich said the government plans to rope in the taxman to help county administrations seal loopholes in tax collection for land and property.
Rotich stated, 'The current property tax is not well designed; valuation rolls are outdated and the coverage is low. We have identified so many challenges.'
He also mentioned that the government plans to deal with the legal design first, then capacitate counties, and perhaps have the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) working with them to collect taxes.
Implementation of the Idle Land Taxation Policy, if adopted, would see owners of idle land face penalties, which could push land owners to come up with ways of putting the parcels to productive use, also improving tax collection.
