Nairobi County Director of Communications Elkana Jacob on Monday morning responded to calm down fears among Nairobi motorists who had been experiencing hitches when using the new system to pay for parking.
Many motorists who attempted to pay for their parking at the Central Business District were unable to process payments as they got error messages.
Elkana explained that some of the glitched had resulted from the high traffic of those trying to pay as well as an upgrade to the system.
“There is no cause for alarm. Many people started paying for parking from 7 am and due to the traffic, the system might have experienced some hitches. We have also been doing an upgrade of the system at around 9.30am, adding some security features to the service,” Elkana calmly stated.
After dialing the USSD Code *235#, the mobile user is given a list of revenue streams to select the section where the payment will be done.
Some motorists could not proceed beyond this point.
Others complained of not receiving confirmation messages while others got a message informing them that the code was not working or was invalid, after paying for the service.
Commenting on the hitches, Nairobi County E-Government Chief Officer Peter Mukenya also stated that the minor issues being experienced were a normal thing as the system was still being "fine-tuned".
"Obviously this is a new system and challenges will be there but our software engineers are on site and are addressing any hitch reported. However, the system has worked almost to perfection and most people are impressed with it," Mukenya responded.
On Saturday, Nairobi County resorted to collecting their own tax after their contract with JamboPay ended. JamboPay has been collecting the county's revenue since 2014.
County Executive Member for Finance Charles Kerich asserted that the county would ensure that JamboPay's exit process will be a smooth one without the interference of services.
“We assure Nairobi residents that every effort will be made to ensure a smooth transition from JamboPay to our very own process,” Kerich promised.
The county got a new USSD code *235# and pay bill account.
