Laikipia County in central Kenya has achieved Ksh1.36 billion ($10.52 million) own source revenue mark, surpassing its Ksh1.35 billion ($10.44 million) targets for the 2025/2026 financial year.

When he announced the feat, Governor Joshua Irungu said, is the remarkable achievement and a pointer to the county’s own source revenue potential that has been on an upward trajectory since the 2022-23 financial year, when collection was Ksh900 million ($6.96 million).

Current exchange of the Kenyan shilling (Ksh) to the dollar is: $1 = Ksh129.

“Laikipia for the first time has surpassed its own source revenue targets against a target of Ksh1.35 billion. The county realised Ksh1.365 billion, which is 101 per cent performance. It exceeded the target by more than Ksh15 million,” the governor said.

The county boss highlighted that the target was a remarkable achievement that demonstrated prudent leadership, sound financial management and strong institutions can deliver meaningful results even in a challenging economic environment.

“This is a remarkable milestone that demonstrates prudent leadership and sound financial management. These achievements represent the resilience of our local economy and the successful reforms we have implemented to strengthen revenue administration,” the county boss explained.

Irungu revealed that compared to previous years, total own source revenue increased from Ksh1.22 billion to Ksh1.365 billion representing a growth of Ksh143 million or 12 per cent. He said the achievement is a result of deliberate reforms.  He lauded his administration for the stellar performance.

Some of the reforms he said boosted the performance include enhanced enforcement, improved performance management, stakeholder’s engagement, implementation of Laikipia County valuation laws 2022 and enactment of Finance Act 2026.  The initiatives enhanced compliance in revenue collection, he said.

Further, he noted the health and trade departments were the major contributors in the revenue basket. Hospitals that were equipped with modern equipment that generated more revenue for the county.

The governor, however, regretted that the county faced setbacks on revenue collections that include delayed reimbursements from Social Health Authority (SHA), industrial action in some health facilities, inadequate operational resources and prevailing economic pressures on businesses.

“While we celebrate this success, we remain mindful of the challenges that affected revenue collections during the year one being industrial actions and reimbursements from Social Health Authority,” Irungu observed.

He further pointed out that his administration was working to automate revenue collection systems, improving customer services to boost revenue in the next financial year.

He urged Laikipia residents to continue paying their taxes promising that more development projects will be ploughed back to match the revenue collection.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Muturi Mwangi

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