By Clinton Ochieng
The Bill, sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya aims to control rents and stop landlords from evicting tenants for failure to pay rent.
It continues to cause different reactions in the stir of recent evictions witnessed across the country. According to the draft bill, landlords could face a fine of up to two months of rent for the property in question or a six-month jail term.
Landlords are also required to give a three-month notice with the aim to increase rent. They could also be fined if they deny basic niceties to tenants such as water, garbage collection, and electricity, in an attempt to force tenants to pay up their rent arrears.
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“Let the price agreement remain between the landlord and tenant. Now KRA will want to tax us too. They are becoming too much, they are pushing us to the wall,” one landlord from Kakamega said.
However, some Taita Taveta residents felt differently. One held that it is a good move that landlords inform tenants of their intention to raise the rent. “Sometimes there is money, sometimes there isn’t. This is a good thing,” he expressed.
As Kenyans struggle with the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are also claims that some landlords did not take rent from their tenants to cushion them from the effects.