Sonko Hits Back at Critics Over New Parking System

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Wednesday bashed the critics of his newly launched parking payment system over the few glitches experienced so far.

This was after he had a meeting with Transport CS James Macharia and other stakeholders regarding the expansion of major roads in Nairobi.

He defended the new system stating that it was common for every new thing to have a few hitches at the start.

"Everything new must have its own challenges. I am aware of the issues and we are working all round to ensure all is smooth. Let those who talk continue talking, they will talk during the day and will sleep at night," the governor told the press.

In his Facebook video post, the governor went ahead to explain to the reporters how the new parking system works and even used a phone belonging to one of them.

Sonko was heavily faulted at the beginning of the week by some MCAs and city motorists who claimed that the entire new system was rushed and not tested well before its inception.

“Although we will eventually overcome the challenges, the system would have been introduced gradually, first by testing several revenue streams that are not very busy to know the challenges that might be encountered,” Nairobi county assembly Budget and Appropriations committee chairman Robert Mbatia stated.

The governor further fired a very resounding warning to owners of car parking business that have encroached Mombasa road and told them it was time for them to close down their illegal enterprises.

"We are not going to condone any impunity. The dual carriageway must, and I say in capital MUST be constructed and we are not going to care about repercussions," he declared.

The entire new roads project is under the Annuity Programme and this particular project is the single initiative that will have ​the biggest impact of reducing traffic jams in the city centre. The roads will stretch from Bomas of Kenya to Ongata Rongai, to Kiserian then from Bomas to Karen to Dagoretti Market.

He confirmed that the funds for the entire project was available and that the construction would begin immediately and the multi-billion project to be supervised by Kenha. This construction will ensure that motorists who want to drive through the CBD, can get an expressway and avoid clogging the city center.

The focus was on construction of a grand dual carriage road from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Kangemi area​ that aims at reducing the rampant traffic jam problem in the city.

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