Stephen Musungu
In a surprising discovery, Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja Keroche has voiced grave worries about a drastic reduction in county tax collection, which she claims has plummeted from 3.6 billion shillings to merely 792 million shillings over the past three years.
The senator called the sharp drop a “red flag” that requires immediate scrutiny and cautioned that if the trend continues, the financial health of the county and the capacity to provide public services might be seriously affected.
Senator Keroche has urged the Budget Controller to put a hold on further budget allocations to Nakuru County until the investigation into the steep revenue shortfall is completed.
She claims that the drastic reduction in collections points to more significant problems in the revenue mobilization and administrative oversight areas—problems that, if not tackled, could not only weaken the county’s development agenda but also erode the taxpayers’ trust in devolved governance.
The senator’s panic comes during a period when there are widespread concerns over the revenue performance of counties throughout the country, with several of the devolved units failing to reach their own-source revenue targets.
Political analysts argue that the decrease in Nakuru’s numbers underscores the necessity for the county to have better financial management, to improve taxpayer compliance mechanisms, and to create stronger systems that will ensure the counties can subsidize the funding of local services and development priorities sustainably.
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