Mombasa council to increase property rates

By Patrick Beja

Mombasa property owners will soon have to dig deeper into their pockets as the cash-strapped municipal council seeks to raise property rates.

Town Clerk Tubman Otieno announced that the council intends to increase property rates to raise money to double its work force to 5,000. He said they plan to hire low-cadre workers to clean the town.

This is despite the council facing a budget deficit of Sh441 million, and being indebted to the tune of Sh2 billion.

“At the moment we require a minimum of 3,500 but 5,000 would be ideal for the council operations. We require workers in Changamwe, Likoni and Kisauni,” said Mr Otieno.

budget deficit

He spoke during a news conference at his office on Monday a few days after the council unveiled its budget that showed a huge deficit.

According to Otieno, they will auction the properties of rate payers who have continued to default over the years.

“The council valuation roll has not been reviewed since 1991 and there is a big disparity in the rates. We are going to raise the rates and sell the property of defaulters,” he said.

Otieno said the council has expanded the revenue base but attempts to implement various levy have resulted in ongoing court cases.

In the council budget read to the public by finance committee chairman Mr Mohamed Hatimy, the local authority intends to raise Sh3.2 billion and expend Sh3.6 billion.

This means that the council would have to grapple with a deficit of Sh441 million.

The council has budgeted to spend Sh1.37 billion on the 2,550 employees and 44 civic leaders. This represents an increase of Sh6 million compared to what was budgeted for last year.

On Monday, Otieno decried the wage bill burden even as he said the workforce was not adequate.

He said when the Ministry of Local Government approved a collective bargaining agreement in 2010, the salary bill at the council shot up from Sh47 million a month to about Sh87 billion.

Meanwhile, the council said flooding during rains owing to defective drainage system would soon end.

The clerk explained that the Ministry of Local Government would construct a 17km storm water drainage system at Sh400 million.

This would be followed by a 34km storm water drainage system funded by the World Bank at about Sh1 billion.

“We have two projects to improve the storm water drainage system in Mombasa. However we are not responsible for the sewerage system,” said Otieno.