City Hall to amend laws to catch parking fee defaulters
City Hall is seeking to amend county by-laws to allow it to accumulate charges on motorists who default on paying daily parking fees.
At the moment, defaulters are only compelled to pay fees and penalties if their vehicles are clamped. In the changes sought, the Sh2,000 daily fines plus the Sh300 daily parking fees will accumulate up to the day parking attendants catch up with the defaulting motorist.
Deputy governor Jonathan Mueke said that parking attendants will launch a manhunt for motorists after three consecutive defaults.
“The reason we are not doing that now is because of a legal loophole as our by-laws do not allow us to charge in arrears. So what we are working on with the Assembly is change that will say you pay all those days you parked,” Mr Mueke said.
He did not say when they intend to take the amendments to the County Assembly. Mr Mueke said that the amendment are important to deter current cases of non-compliance.
Real-time data shows that by 12pm on Friday, 4,900 motorists had paid their parking fees while 2,800 had not.
SABOTAGING SYSTEM
Mr Mueke said that City Hall was also planning a purge of attendants who are sabotaging the cashless parking system, which he said has potential to yield Sh2.5 million daily but is currently bringing in Sh1.6 million.
The county is currently gathering data on areas which have been reporting low collections, a possible indicator that attendants are colluding with motorists.
By failing to key in a number plate, an attendant may collect cash without the system being alerted of non-payment.
“Data collection is what is going to show the severity. There are some attendants who don’t even check one car a day. Once I’m able to prove that, it will be summary dismissal. Others will be trained and others transferred,” Mr Mueke said.
On Friday, by 12pm only six people had paid for parking along the length of Ngong Road, indicating a lack of attendants in the area or collusion. In Ngara only three had paid and two in the Yaya Centre area.
The county collects an average of Sh1.6 million daily up from Sh1.3 million two weeks ago after it stepped up clamping.
According to the Friday real-time data, only 185 of the 2,800 non-compliant vehicles had been clamped despite the purchase of 500 extra clamps two weeks ago.