NMS audits county houses, tenants to boost revenue

Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) has launched an inventory of county rental houses and tenants s, a move aimed at enhancing revenue collection.

The exercise, which is set to be conducted in collaboration with City Hall and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) before the end of this month, seeks to identify and map out all county rental houses as well as verify tenants residing in the said houses.

In a public notice by NMS Director General Major General Mohamed Badi, the exercise is geared towards establishing the number of county-owned houses as well as identify verified tenants in such houses.

At the same time, the inventory will also assist NMS to identify the houses that will be affected once the Affordable Housing Programme Phase two commences.

“Notice is hereby given that Nairobi Metropolitan Services in conjunction with Nairobi City County Government and Kenya Revenue Authority intend to undertake an exercise to update the inventory of county rental houses and tenants residing in the said houses,” read in part the notice.

As part of the exercise, occupants of the rental houses will be expected to provide original and copies of the national identity card, rental or tenancy transfer letter, KRA pin, latest payment receipt and any other relevant documents.

The tenants have also been reminded to clear their rent arrears before June 30, 2021.

The new development comes at a time when the Nairobi County government is grappling with dismal own source revenue performance.

REVENUE COLLECTION

The city county realised a paltry Sh8.53 billion own-source revenue in the financial year ended June 30, 2020.

To boost its own source revenue, City Hall last year in March tapped KRA to be its principal revenue collector.

And in the period between July and December 2020, a total of Sh292.9 million was collected from house rent against a target of Sh300 million, from the period of July to December 2020. This was an increase of Sh51 million from the previous financial year.

As of 2019, records from City Hall revealed that there were 16,746 county-owned houses. However, it was noted that the tenants have failed to pay rent to City Hall over the years which has impacted negatively in revenue collection.

The tenants pay between Sh2,000 and Sh20,000 monthly rent depending on the location. In May 2019, it was revealed that City Hall is owed a whopping Sh224 million by tenants living in the county houses across the capital.

The then Nairobi County Housing Director Marion Rono, currently holding the same position in NMS, revealed that defaulters were the biggest contributors to the dwindling collections with tenants in houses in Maringo and Woodley estates, the biggest culprits.