Nairobi County hikes parking fees to Sh300

By CYRUS OMBATI

NAIROBI, KENYA: Motorists in Nairobi will from Wednesday morning pay Sh300 to park their cars in the city centre.

This is after a planned appeal on a case that challenged the raising of the fee from Sh140 failed to go on Tuesday.

Parking attendants were ordered to charge Sh300 and this was a shock to many motorists who were not aware. Lorries will be charged Sh1000 per day.

The county government passed a law to increase fees for saloon cars parked in the CBD to Sh300 and Sh200 for those outside the CBD.

Saloon cars parked in Westlands, Ngara, Highridge, Upper Hill, Community, Ngara, Industrial Area, Gigiri, Lavington and Karen will attract the same fee as those in the CBD.

Areas classified as being outside CBD include Buruburu Shopping Centre, Pangani, Muthaiga, Eastleigh, Ngong Road, Kombo Munyiri, New Pumwani Road, Lang’ata Road, Kariokor and Ziwani shopping centre.

Parking in non-automated areas within the CBD will go up by Sh200 to Sh400 while automated parking will attract a charge of Sh50 per hour.

In their failed petition, 26 PSV operators told high court that the Nairobi Finance Act, under which the increase was affected, was unconstitutional. Parking fee is one of the main contributors of money to the County Government.

Governor Evans Kidero said after the planned appeal failed to take off, they were free to implement the new law.

“Remember a judge had allowed the County Government to implement the law but the petitioners said they would appeal of which they did not. We will go ahead and charge the new fee from this morning (Wednesday),” said Kidero.

Head of parking section Tom Tinega said he had set all systems to ensure they implement the new law.

“We had printed the new parking tickets even before the case was taken to court and we have instructed the attendants to start charging the fee as enacted,” said Tinega.

Those who will damage a pole will be charged Sh120,000 while damaging of clamps will attract a fine of Sh30,000. Seasonal tickets for salon cars will attract Sh5,000 a month up from Sh2,000 while taxis will pay Sh6,000 a month.

Tinega added City Hall plans to increase its monthly collection from parking section to more than Sh200million.

This was after the collection for January hit Sh149 million up from Sh128 million in December. The amount was collected from motorists parking on the streets, off streets, seasonal tickets, clamping fees, impounded cars and loading zone.

Officials at the parking section say they have put in measures to address a number of weaknesses that saw the revenue go down.

The measures include planting of inspectors at various places for inspection on their operations.

“We have realized there have been so many masqueraders who were collecting money that never reached our coffers. There will be inspectors in those areas to ensure only genuine officials are on duty,” said Tinega.