Operations at the state owned media house Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) came to a standstill Tuesday morning after Nairobi County officials stormed their premises over unpaid land rates.
The rates are said to have accumulated to Sh2, 060,929,343 since 2008 from a monthly compound interest of 3%.
This is despite waivers offered and consensus being reached back in 2014 on the mode of payment between the KBC management and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.
In the agreement, KBC was supposed to pay Sh500 million every month until the principal debt is cleared before another agreement is made on how to waive the penalties.
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However, KBC did not keep its side of the agreement forcing the county officials to descend on them.
The county came armed with enough man power and an already designed bill board indicating the Sh2 billion KBC owes the county ready to 'shame' the government.
The heavily armed KBC's General Service Unit officers were of no assistance and a crisis meeting was called.
An hour later, Head of Budget Nairobi County Morris Okere emerged out with a cheque payment of Sh500 million.
"They (KBC management) have agreed to meet us next Tuesday to chart a way forward on how to complete the rest of the amount," he said.
Okere said their aim was to take control of the premise so that rent is thereby channeled to the county until the whole debt is cleared. This is according to section 18 of the Rating Act where defaulters have their properties seized and tenants remit rent to the county until the whole debt is cleared.
"Being a government owned and managed parastatal, we shall just erect a bill board and leave them with notice until our next meeting," he added.
Head of the Operation John Ntoiti however warned that the same will not be replicated on the other targeted parastatals.
These are Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) which owes the county Sh441 million, Kenya Railways Sh300 million and Kenya National Trading Company Sh5.5 million.
"We have been targeting private companies all along but parastatals are the most notorious. They owe the county billions that have incapacitated service delivery," said Ntoiti.
Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), Kenya Power and Telkom Kenya are said to be the next targets.
