Levies should improve county, park services
By Editorial.Team, August 24, 2023Generation of revenue has been a major headache for most county governments, rendering them unable to provide key services.
The major challenge is collection of own-source revenue despite the fact that the devolved units have huge untapped potential.
The revenue streams in counties include property rates, parking and market fees, lease rents, health service charges, business and building permits, advertisement and liquor licensing fees.
However, counties have not been able to exploit their revenue potential due to lack effective and efficient collection and management systems, unregistered property, political interference, tax evasion and resistance to pay by dubious businessmen with connections to corrupt officials.
There have been consisted calls for county governments to come up with more innovative ways of generating resources and seal corruption gaps. Experts have pointed out the passing of strong legislation, policies, monitoring, enforcement mechanisms and use of technology.
The issue of huge debts incurred by the defunct municipal governments that were inherited by counties should also be addressed.
Governors have been agitating that they be allowed to tap into the revenues collected from natural resources which they host and are managed by the National government, notably national parks and games reserves.
That is why we consider the decision by President William Ruto to cede 50 per cent of the revenue collected from Amboseli and Maasai Mara Game Reserves to Kajiado and Narok county governments, respectively to be a major test on prudence for the responsible authorities.
Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku and his Narok counterpart Patrick ole Ntutu must also demonstrate there can be an effective mechanism of shared responsibility between the two levels of government under an environment of mutual respect to serve public interest. This is the kind of complementarity and cooperation envisioned in the Constitution.
But more importantly, the resources collected from the game reserves must be used to boost service delivery and transform the lives of the targeted citizens. The move should not be an avenue for illegal and unethical accumulation of wealth by corrupt government officials.