The National Land Commission (NLC) and the Kajiado County Government are again at odds with over Sh11 billion in unpaid land taxes that a multinational corporation owes to the devolved entity.
The county administration reprimanded the NLC for trying to arrange a meeting between senior Kajiado County government officials and the management of Tata Chemicals Magadi, which stopped the NLC's efforts to settle the long-running dispute over unpaid land rates. At Lake Magadi, the multinational mines.
The NLC Chairman Gershom Otachi's attempt to meet with the team from the multinational on Monday and high-ranking Kajiado County government representatives ended when Governor Joseph Ole Lenku cancelled the meeting.
The governor instructed the members of his CEC in charge of finance, lands and environment, and national resources not to attend the meeting at the NLC headquarters because those departments lacked the authority to intervene in the land rate dispute because the parcel in question was not the public territory.
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"Tata Chemicals Magadi Ltd has a lease of the property they occupy by the County Government of Kajiado, and the said ceased to be public land but private land. Hence, the NLC does not influence the rate setting. "In a letter to Mr Otachi on Friday, Governor Lenku stated.
Mr Otachi requested a meeting between the county government and NLC to discuss the land rates problem in a letter to the governor on Thursday.
Six-Year Conflict
Mr Otachi acknowledged that Tata Chemicals Ltd. had contacted him over the six-year disagreement.
"Tata Chemicals Magadi Ltd. contacted us about some concerns relating to various land parcels they own in the county, including questions of tenure and land charges. Mr Otachi wrote to Governor Lenku, "We request participation from your office, particularly the Executives in charge of Finance, Lands, and Environment & Natural Resources who are supposed to bring pertinent documentation on the topic.
Governor Lenku, citing a High Court decision from 2019 that "resolved the problem" between the county and the multinational, countered that the NLC lacked the authority to get involved.
The Kajiado Budget Act (2014) and the Kajiado County Rating Act (2016) provide for the levying of rates, and the High Court upheld these rights.
The recent weather has halted the NLC's efforts to resolve the land rates issue between the Kajiado County government and Tata Chemicals Magadi Ltd.
The county assessed the multinational a land rates bill of Sh11.4 billion last year for the more than 179,354 acres of land it uses.
Tata Chemicals Magadi Ltd. has been denied operating permits and licenses by the county this year unless it pays the land taxes. The business might soon be illegally doing so in the county.
