City Hall proposes hourly parking charges within the Central Business District(CBD), posing a huge financial challenge for motorists in Nairobi.
According to Halkano Waqo, Nairobi’s Finance and Economic Planning Chief Officer, the hourly parking charges are aimed at boosting revenue as well as deal with the heavy traffic experienced in the city.
“As a growing city we have to explore all the mechanisms to decongest the city as well as get revenue for the county," said Waqo.
He also added that the hourly fee will discourage collusion between motorists and parking attendants.
"It will be easy paying Ksh50 for two hours and if like 300 vehicles park for an hour or two and go, then it means these spaces will be available for other motorists," he said.
Currently, motorists pay Ksh 200 daily for parking in the CBD. The hourly rates are not yet set and are subject to approval by the County Assembly once implemented.
It is said that City Hall has been losing millions in parking revenue every month with motorists unwilling to pay Ksh 200 daily for parking to the parking attendants.
The attempts made to raise the parking fee to Ksh 400 a day was met with resistance by some motorists. The matter is still pending in court.
The city has over the past years been facing challenges of congestion and revenue leaks. Parking attendants are said to collude with motorists to deny the county government billions of revenue for parking fees according to a report in 2020 by Nairobi County Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations committee.
A total of Ksh 437,500 was reported to be lost everyday from on-street parking, with a good number of motorists parking in the CBD without paying the parking fee.
In a bid to improve accountability of the parking fee, City Hall proposes improving supervision, increasing enforcement as well as expediting construction of sunken park.
