Nairobi County government has extended the land rates waiver period from the initial December 31, 2025, deadline to January 9, 2026.
The extension, which was revealed by Receiver of Revenue Tiras Njoroge on Tuesday, January 6, will give more room to land owners to regularise their accounts before enforcement action from the county government.
According to Njoroge, the overwhelming number of individuals who flocked to City Hall and sub-county customer service centres ahead of the initial December 31 deadline prompted the county government to extrapolate the waiver period.
"We extended the waiver to January 9 purely to attend to the overwhelming queues we witnessed as the December 31 deadline approached," Njoroge said.
"This is to ensure those who turned up in good faith are served. After January 9, the waiver will end, and the National Rating Act will be applied in full to all defaulters,” he added.
The waiver is set to scrap 100 per cent of accumulated interest and penalties for landowners who clear the outstanding arrears within the window.
Once the waiver period ends, land owners who fail to update their land rate records will be treated as defaulters according to the county government.
Njoroge noted that the failure of some property owners to clear their arrears has played a key role in crippling the county governments' capacity to provide essential services such as healthcare and waste management.
“This waiver is the last soft landing. Once it ends, we will fully apply the law to recover outstanding land rates, including penalties and interest,” Njoroge cautioned.
“It is not sustainable that only about 20 per cent of landowners are paying rates. Roads, waste management, health services, and public lighting depend on this revenue. Everyone must contribute fairly,” he added.
Last year, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja revealed that while there are 250,000 registered land parcels in Nairobi, only a quarter are complying with land rate payment.
Amnesty to housing developers and property owners
The announcement comes three weeks after the county government announced a six-month amnesty that will allow housing developers and property owners to regularise unauthorised developments without paying penalties.
The county government said that the developers should ensure that they "submit what they have" even if the documentation is incomplete, to kickstart the regulation process.
In a notice on Thursday, December 18, the county government said that Submissions should be made through the Nairobi Planning and Development Management System (NPDMS), sub-county offices, or City Hall.
