Land owners may be in for a rude awakening as the City Council of Nairobi moves to crack down on those who fail to pay their taxes. The Council issued its final warning yesterday before handing over its books to the Nairobi County Government. The move, dubbed ‘Operation Clamp Down’, kicked off on July 10^th. According to Town Clerk, Roba Duba.“It will be the most thorough and conclusive operation to ever be executed by the Council on rates defaulters.”

The Council intends to recover KES50 billion in arrears by either collecting debts from defaulters or auctioning their land. Commercial property owners who violate these terms will be forced to submit all their rental income to City Hall until all debts are cleared. In such cases, City Hall will act as the landlord. Aside from the change in ownership, the proposal will not affect tenants.

Section 17 of the Rating Act states that the City Council has the right to recover debts owed by repossessing and selling defaulters’ property. The Council will, however, dismiss all the penalties for those who clear their debts by the 8^th of August 2012.