Nairobi City's parking fees yet to go down despite new law

Nairobi City County attendants clamp a car whose owner had not paid for parking. Motorists are still paying Sh300 for parking space in Nairobi, nearly a month after the county assembly reduced the fee to Sh200. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Parking attendants are charging Sh300 and the electronic payment service ejijiPAY, administered by JamboPay, is yet to be configured to charge the lesser amount.
  • Robert Mbatia, the chairman of the county's Budget and Appropriations Committee said they have received complaints from motorists over the fees and are making follow-ups with the executive.

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 Governor Mike Sonko last month.

DELAYS

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.”

“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 said Thursday.

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 Sh300 was too high and prohibitive.

A JamboPay source said they would communicate in case of 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.

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

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