City Hall losing Sh600,000 every day in parking levies

Nairobi City Inspectorate team clamps a vehicle that had not paid parking fees. [File, Standard]

Nairobi County loses approximately Sh18 million every month in parking fees thanks to corrupt dealings between county askaris and motorists.

Payments for parking are made through the Ejiji pay electronic system using mobile money transfer.

However, weak enforcement of rules or lack thereof, coupled with numerous under dealings has led to City Hall losing Sh600,000 daily.

Jambo Pay Director Danson Muchemi Wednesday blamed corrupt city officers for the haemorrhaging of revenue, saying that over 2,000 vehicles default in paying parking fees daily.

Sabotage

“The money lost is due to non-enforcement of rules by the officers. They do not like the cashless system and they sabotage it so they can go manual and pocket the revenue,” said Muchemi.

The director observed that Public Service Vehicles were the biggest defaulters followed by private car owners. In the month of July, he said, a total of 16,000 matatus defaulted in paying parking fees.

Muchemi explained that motorists usually collude with county officers to pay less, presenting a ‘win-win’ situation for both.

The motorists do not pay the stipulated Sh300 while the askaris make a quick shilling.

“Money meant to pay for seasonal or daily parking at times never makes it to City Hall’s cash office due to greed among some officers,” he said.

Bribing askaris

As of July this year, he said, Sh68.6 million in revenue had been lost since January.

Jane Wambui (not real name), a motorist, confessed to paying the askaris between Sh150 and Sh200 on many occasions.

“I am rarely in town for long so I do not see the need to pay Sh300 for a few hours. Just give them Sh200 and you are sorted for the day,” said Wambui.

Nairobi Parking Services Director Frederick Ndunyu, however, blamed the Ejiji pay payment system, terming it ineffective and at times slow.

Through his own analysis, he estimated that only Sh500,000 was lost daily.

Ndunyu said network interruptions, especially during the peak hours were to blame for the loss of revenue.

“In a day the systems may be down for almost three hours,” he said.

He said in the event residents are not able to make payments online, they have to pay cash to askaris, but most often than not the money does not make it to the cash office.

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