Nairobi News

HashtagHustleNews

City Hall defies by-law to retain Sh300 parking fee


Nairobi County has defied its own by-law to continue collecting Sh300 from motorists for parking space— almost one month after its MCAs cut the fee by Sh100.

Both the parking attendants and electronic payment service platform, ejijiPAY, are still charging motorists Sh300 for daily parking within the city centre despite the city by-law passed by MCAs in November and signed by the Governor, Mike Sonko, last month.

The chairman of the County Budget and Appropriations Committee Robert Mbatia said they have received complaints from motorists over the fees “and we are making follow-ups with the executive and JamboPay, the electronic payments platform vendor.”

‘ILLEGALITY’

“We have been made aware and we are following up with the executive because it is an illegality. The administrator (JamboPay) have told us that they have not been instructed by the county government to adjust the systems,” Mr Mbatia told Business Daily yesterday.

Mr Mbatia said they were following up with the executive to establish why there have been delays in adjusting the fees that was meant to reduce rates of default by motorists who said the Sh300 was too high and prohibitive.

A JamboPay source said they would communicate in case of any changes if and when advised by City Hall.

“We are waiting for instructions from the county. Once it is done, we will communicate,” the source said on Thursday.

BURDEN TO MOTORISTS

City Hall reduced parking fees to Sh200, with Mr Sonko saying it would reduce the burden on city motorists who are paying more for fuel after introduction of an eight per cent value-added tax onthe commodity last year.

The reduced charges are however set to hurt earnings form parking fees that accounted for 18.6 per cent of Nairobi’s Sh10.1 billion revenue for the year to June.