Court upholds decision to increase parking fee within Nairobi's Central Business District

BY WILFRED AYAGA

NAIROBI, KENYA: The High Court has upheld a decision of the Nairobi County government to increase parking fee within the Nairobi Central Business District.

Justice Isaac Lenaola has ruled that the County government was within its constitutional mandate to affect the increase, which PSV operators claimed would negatively affect their activities. 

The increase saw parking fees within the CBD rise from Sh140 to Sh300.

In his ruling, Justice Lenaola said that Public service Operators had failed to demonstrate that the fee increase was prejudicial to the country’s economic policies.

The judge said that the court could not direct the county government on how to exercise its duty of raising revenue.

“I must state that this court cannot direct the County government on how to exercise its duty of levying fees,” he ruled.

The judge disagreed with the public service operators who had claimed that the county government did not take into account public participation before the decision to increase the parking fees was reached.

He said that there was evidence the County government had involved various stakeholders before.   He cited a meeting held on 24th April and which was attended by industry representatives, diplomatic missions, non-governmental bodies and the media as evidence that the county government had taken public interest into account.

“To my mind, the process was highly public as there were public forums, meetings, media reports and even lobbying and an opportunity to make written representations through written memoranda,” the judge said.

In its petition, the 26 PSV operators had sought a court declaration that the Nairobi Finance Act, under which the increase was affected, was unconstitutional. They had also argued that it violated various provisions of the Traffic Act.