Nairobi government has spared business people, land owners and motorists new taxes and levies in the current financial year.
The development comes even as the county collected a record Sh12.8 billion in own source revenue in the financial year that ended on June 30.
Governor Johnson Sakaja said his administration will not introduce new taxes in the wake of the ‘new reality.’
Instead, the city dwellers will pay the current levies as stipulated in the County Finance Act, 2023.
“The Finance Act, 2023 is still in use. We will not introduce another Bill until next year, we want to listen to the people and know how they are responding to the charges we introduced before we come up with a new bill,” Sakaja said.
The announcement comes in the wake of deadly street protests triggered by the withdrawn national government’s Finance Bill, 2024.
A few days ago, Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Jr also withdrew the county's finance bill.
Sakaja praised his administration for breaking the OSR record, saying the county now targets to raise Sh20 billion by the end of this fiscal year.
“The reason why we broke the barrier is because of digitisation. When you have a no-cash policy and everything comes straight into our system, to the bank and county revenue fund, you seal a lot of wastage," he said.
Sakaja said the county could have collected more than Sh13 billion had it not been for the deadly street protests that disrupted businesses.
On average, the county lost Sh70 million in revenue every day.
"There are days we went as low as Sh10 million, a week where we would collect at least Sh85 million per day and those are the resources that were serving the people of Nairobi. I want to thank our people," he said.
With a freeze on new taxes and levies amid a ballooning budget, the city government will have to tighten its belt and enforce collections to finance the budget.
The county government has approved a budget of Sh43.5 billion – to be financed by the source revenue and the equitable share from the national government.
“We are now doing regularisation of buildings. This will bring more resources that will be channelled towards provision of water services to the people,” he said.
“We do not collect revenue just for the sake of it but to serve the people of Nairobi.
Sakaja defended his administration, saying it is sensitive to the plight of city residents and not not extravagant.
“As a devolved government, we are working hard to improve the lives of Nairobi residents. That is what we will continue doing. Our foreign travel budgets have also gone down,” he said.