Local Government Finance in Kenya1
| Published date | 01 October 1963 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1963.tb00624.x |
| Date | 01 October 1963 |
Local
Government
Finance
in
Kenyd
Recurrent
finance:
the
present
position
The
present
patterns
of
recurrent
expenditures
and
revenues by all local
authorities combined were given in Tables I
and
2respectively.t the figures
relating to the calendar year 1962.
There
are
three
main
classes of local
authorities as
at
present constituted: municipalities, county councils
and
African
district councils
and
there
are
marked
differences in the responsibilities
borne
both
as between the classes
and
within a single class.
Certain
services (administra-
tion, roads, health, social services)
are
common to all three classes of authorities,
though
not
every
authority
in the same class undertakes the same range
of
services. Roads figure prominently in the expenditures of county councils
because
road
construction
and
maintenance
are
their
principal duties
and
the
newest county councils have
not
progressed beyond acting as agents for
the
road
authority. All
the
African district councils, on
the
other
hand,
maintain
roads, perform duties as
health
authorities
and
provide
water
supplies;
and
although they
are
not
education authorities, they subscribe considerable sums
towards the costs of
primary
education in their areas.
The
contrasts between the classes of authorities on
the
income side
are
even
more
marked. Municipalities finance the highest
proportion
of
their
expendi-
ture
from their own taxes
and
depend
on the central
Government
for only
10
per
cent. of their expenditure.
The
corresponding figures for counties
and
African district councils
are
44
and
46
per
cent. respectively.
The
figures differ
so
much
because municipalities have neither the responsibility of the
county
councils for roads
nor
that
of the African district councils for education,
both
services which
are
heavily grant-aided.
The
different revenue systems
are
briefly described in the following paragraphs.
(a)
Local
revenues
(I)
Municipalities and
townships.
These authorities generally rely on a single tax
on
unimproved
site values, levied
upon
owners according to the provisions
of
the Local Government (Valuation
and
Rating)
Ordinance
of 1956. An isolated
attempt
to
rate
improvements in addition was
made
in
Mombasa
in the nine-
teen-forties
and
abandoned
after ashort trial because of defects in the law.
(2)
County
councils.
The
Local Government (County Councils)
Ordinance
of
1952 provides the countries
with
the
following alternative methods of
rating:
(i)
any
rate
which amunicipal
councilor
municipal
board
is empowered
to impose
under
section 15of the Local Government
(Rating)
Ordinance;
(ii) a
rate
upon
the
annual
value
ofland;
(iii) a flat
rate
upon
the
area
of
land;
(iv) a
graduated
rate
upon
the
area
ofland;
(v)
an
industrial
rate
upon
the
area
of
unimproved site value of, or
on
the
value of improvements on,
land
used for
other
than
agricultural or
residential purposes;
(vi) a
rate
upon
the value of every dwelling-house
and
the
curtilage thereof;
(vii) such
other
method
of
rating
as the county council
may,
with
the
approval
of
the
Minister, adopt.
IThis article is reprinted from
Chapter
7 of the report of the Fiscal Commission, Government
of Kenya, 1963;
lOS.
2These Tables were reprinted in J.L.A.O., Vol.
II,
NO.3,
July
1963, pp. 164-165.
233
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