An Open Letter to Kiambu County Government
By Chomba Wambui Jane
It is with lots of pain that we, Kiambu residents, write to
the county government under the stewardship of His Excellency the Governor
William Kabogo over the kind of exploitation that you are exerting on the real
estate developers and home owners.
Your recent price increments on various items in the building
and construction industry is proving to be hell for the low income earners who
wish to put up homes within the county. It is good to remind you that majority
of us secure these plots of land and build our homes through the acquisition of
bank loans. This means that we are expected to pay back these loans with
interest, paying our other bills notwithstanding.
In particular, I fail to understand how your office came up
with the following rate in your new Building Act, which according to me and the
rest of the real estate developers, are punitive and driving away potential
investors who would have otherwise invested in our county:-
How does Kiambu County Government justify the increase of
the charges for ‘Change of User’ from Ksh. 11,000 to Ksh. 120,000 per every
plot of land? This also includes an extra sh. 5,000 for provisional valuation
services.
We are also taking issue with the new rates introduced by
the county government when erecting a perimeter fence. It now cost one sh. 500
per meter to erect a fence. This is to mean that if one owns a plot of 100 by 50ft,
one is expected to pay 2(50+100) ÷ 3.3 X sh.500 = sh. 45,455 for the wall
alone.
The Authority letter for Temporary Boundary Fencing
(Concrete Poles & Chain link fence) costs sh. 5,000 for any plot below
0.1ha.
This is disregarding the fact that the developer may be
erecting the wall to avoid any intruders from invading their plot or they may
have borrowed a loan to build a one-roomed house due to their meager earnings.
Then comes the Fees for Evaluation of Building Plans and
Permits (sh. 6,000) for a 0 - 46 sq.m room, single dwelling occupation permit
(sh.5,000) and sh. 6,000 for construction inspection, enforcement and
occupation permits if one is building outside the CBD.
NB: Structural Engineering Drawings is levied at 50% of
initial architectural building plans charges
Considering that one has to go through all those steps to
fully comply with the county building regulations, Kiambu residents feel
exploited and forced to abandon their building plans due to these exorbitant
charges.
It is for this reason we as the rate payers, are demanding
an explanation as to why the county government is discouraging low income
earners a chance to own a home in the county.
I am reminding Governor William Kabogo that not all people
are wealthy enough to raise all those fee and at the same manage to put up
their own homes.
Don’t make regret why we had to move to the devolved system
of government as we believe that it was meant to ease life not to oppress the
taxpayers and milk them dry.
The writer is an investor in Thika Town
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