Kisumu County mulls bill on revenue

Kisumu County Government is considering a new law that will ensure that the revenue collected from the business community is ploughed back into improving services for them.

This follows recommendations from the traders under the aegis of the Kisumu Business Coalition during the recent County Dialogue Forum in the town.

The forums are part of an ongoing initiative by Business Membership Organisations to have structured dialogue with county governments in a bid to ensure that their recommendations are included in the counties annual development plans and the county’s legislative agenda. The County Finance and Economic Planning Executive Nerry Achar said the county would draft a new bill to address the business community’s concerns about service delivery. 

“We will ensure that a bigger percentage of the service fees and charges that we collect from business people will go back to where we are collecting it from. If, for example, we collect money from markets, the revenue should go back and improve services in the market like security, sanitation and improving the markets in general. For this to happen, it is important to have legal backing for it,” said Mr Achar.

Through the Kisumu Business Coalition, business owners had urged the county to ring-fence revenues collected from them to ensure that they receive better services. The lobby’s chairman Israel Agina expressed confidence that the county would respond to their concerns