Nairobi County Moves Towards Transparent Revenue Structure: Drafting Consolidated Schedule of Fees and Charges

Naivasha, 28th March, 2024

Nairobi County is working towards coming up with a model county consolidated schedule of fees and charges with the aim of being transparent in all revenues and charges it levies.

County officers drawn from all revenue generating sectors met in Naivasha for a two-day validation workshop to share their respective input on the draft consolidated schedule of Nairobi County Fees and Charges (2013- 2023).
Nairobi County Chief Officer for Revenue Administration, Wilson Gakuya mentioned that following the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2013, counties moved from the defunct local authorities to the County Government which meant that there was a creation of a distinct yet interdependent entities of the County Governments and these entities were given mandates to be able to govern themselves and be able to create resources for their own operations which meant that counties would be able to charge their own fees and charges.

"The county revenue raising measures are contained in a Finance Act, an omnibus legislation that outlines revenue raising measures that are geared to meet the government budgetary requirements.
Since 2010, there have been several enactments of the law, both the Finance Acts and other enabling legislation. The first county Finance Act was in 2013. In 2015, an attempt was made to consolidate all the various historical fees and charges by the creation of a Revenue Act 2015. Subsequently, we have Finance Act 2022 and 2023" he said.

"A Finance Act itself contains the various amendments within the enabling mother laws. If you look at the various finance acts, they have various amendments within the mother law but we do not have one document that can tell us that this is the updated status of our county fees and charges because the Act only contains the various amendments and whatever is not amended is not captured" said Mr. Gakuya.

He stated that the county needed to create a one-stop document that Nairobians can be able to refer to guide them on fees and charges from the historical aspect of the local government to current situations.
Chief Gakuya further mentioned that this was one of H.E the Governors' agendas to create order and dignity to the citizens of Nairobi who at times are not aware of offences committed or applicable fees and charges for various services offered by the county government and with the information in one booklet, it will also empower county officers in their daily operations by making them aware of applicable fees and charges, and equally help in compliance and enforcement.

He said, " We engaged a consultant to go through the historical laws from 2013 to 2023, which are fragmented in nature, update the various fees and charges, and then identify the gaps in our laws. Some provisions of the laws are ambiguous while others are not in harmony. "

After the validation process by the sectors, the sector will develop a booklet containing fees and charges, which will be availed to all county staff. A soft copy of the schedule will also be available in the county online platforms.

Mr. Gakuya added that H.E. the Governor stopped the issue of compliance and enforcement in Nairobi, paving the way for the development of a consolidated schedule of fees and charges to curb harassment of its customers.
County Director for Revenue Administration, Dr. John Ntoiti said, "We are developing schedules of fees and charges as well as Finance Bill 2024. We do not want the two processes to be merged. The consolidated schedule of fees and charges will become the reference book for future finance acts. We have already initiated the process of coming up with finance Act 2024, a committee is already in place, the County Chief Officers were requested to forward all their proposals for consolidation and sectors will defend their proposals thereafter".

The consultants tasked with drafting the booklet, OJ Advocates LLP led by Gavin Castro said the exercise was very crucial and it showcased good transformative leadership by the Finance Sector in bringing sectors on board to bring clarity and predictability on fees and charges to its citizens as well as potential investors.
Mr. Gavin also added that resistance to compliance will also reduce when citizens are well informed.

The consultants task was to look at finance act 2013-2023 and enabling statutes, and in their findings, they realized that the county has only four active Finance Acts; 2013,2015,2022, and 2023. They then scrutinized enabling legislation that provided for other charges, extracted the charges, and picked the most recent.

Other findings based on the draft document that the county officers brainstormed and came up with potential solutions were: lack of regulations for fines and penalties, overlapping of charges where multiple sectors impose fees for the same service, items listed without charges, duplication of charges, ambiguity in charge listings among others.

The objective of the validation was to affirm and prove accuracy of the booklet, identify deficiencies and improve on them, raise stakeholders' confidence by ensuring transparency and accountability on the revenue collector and payer and also help in mitigating the risk of errors, omissions or inconsistencies.

Present were County Chief Officers for Gender and Inclusivity, Maryam Dahir, Youth, Talent and Sports, Oscar Igaida, ICT Infrastructure, John Lintari, Social Services, George Mutiso, County Directors and technical officers.

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