Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja's administration has announced measures to recover outstanding land rates from residents.
As approved during a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, June 18, the county government will auction property belonging to land owners who have arrears.
Equally, in the affected properties with rental income, all rent will be directly paid to the county governments as opposed to the landlords.
"The CEC meeting also approved the issuance of agency notice for properties with rental income, where tenants will be required to pay rent directly to the Nairobi City County Government until the outstanding rates are fully settled," read the statement in part.
"The action follows the expiration of the second waiver for land rates penalties and interest, on condition that the owners settle the principal."
On the other hand, the county government will issue caveats on the affected properties to prevent the landlords from selling them.
"The county government recently published in the media a list of rates defaulters and gave a one-month grace period to settle the principal amount, while waiving interest and penalties," the county stated.
"As of today, Nairobi has raised Ksh3,255,969,569 in land rates against a target of Ksh7 billion with two weeks left to the end of the financial year."
Therefore, in aiding the recovery process, Sakaja directed all his cabinet and senior officers to avail vehicles and all necessary resources for the exercise.
Equally, it was noted that the legal department of the county was also handling the exercise.
Over 200,000 landowners in Nairobi are set to be affected during the recovery exercise with most of the arrears ranging between Ksh50,000 to 3 billion.
The affected areas cut across all the constituencies including Westlands, Mathare, Makadara, Langata, Kasarani, Kibra, Starehe, Ruaraka, Embakasi West, Embakasi South and Dagoretti North.
