Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja is set to launch a new system through which drivers will pay for their parking within the city.
Speaking on Wednesday, August 31, the county government's Director of Parking Tim Tinega confirmed that the creators of the platform were refining it before being rolled out to the public.
Tinega disclosed that the system will be in use by Friday, September 2, to allow motorists make the payments seamlessly.
“We are finalising our systems and the public will be notified before the end of the week of the new short code that they will be using in paying for their parking fees,” the Director confirmed.
Consequently, the payment platform that has been in use under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), that incorporated the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will be phased out.
Dubbed the Nairobi Revenue System, the KRA-managed platform provided an aggregate for all services, with the funds being channeled directly to the taxman.
Motorists accessed the services through the USSD code *647# and would pay for parking in designated zones in the city and its outskirts via their mobile phones.
The county government collects Ksh100 million in parking revenue. However, following the inception of the NRS in 2020, it recorded a drop of Ksh400 million in annual revenue.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the devolved unit collected Ksh1.08 billion under NRS, compared to Ksh1.45 billion in the 2019/20 financial year.
City parking becomes the second service offered by Nairobi County that Sakaja has reclaimed from NMS Director General, Lt. General Mohamed Badi.
On August 29, Sakaja declared that he had stripped the NMS off the revenue collection role that was being executed jointly with the national government.
With its term slated to end on August 24, the NMS was allowed three more months to hand over county books to the new administration.
“Further to Article 9.1 of the Deed of Transfer of Functions, the duration of the transferred functions is extended by a further period of six months from February 25, 2022, to August 24, 2022. Upon the expiry of the Deed of Transfer of Functions as stated herein above, there shall be a handover period of three months to ensure continuous service delivery,” read the gazette notice.
