City Hall to bring more estates into parking fees net
A vehicle clamped in the past over unpaid parking fees.
City Hall is set to include more Nairobi estates where it will charge parking fees in the race to grow its internal revenues.
Nairobi county on Thursday announced that it is set to gazette more parking areas in the capital city, putting pressure on motorists battling costly fuel.
Nairobi Finance and Economic Planning CEC Allan Igambi said the new development is part of new revenue-raising measures to ensure City Hall meets its revenue target of Sh19.8 billion against a budget of Sh39.63 billion for the year starting July.
The county currently charges a daily parking fee of Sh200 and got revenue of Sh1.5 billion in the financial year ended June last year, against a target of Sh2.8 billion.
Now, City Hall will gazette more parking areas and charges based on location and estates, as it looks to collect Sh3.02 billion in the new year starting July.
“We plan to gazette more parking areas and introduce zonal charging of the parking bays to increase revenue from parking fees,” said Mr Igambi while reading the city county’s budget statement and Finance Bill, 2021 on Thursday.
The total car parking space in Nairobi’s city centre is 14, 864, of which 3,941 are on-street parking, representing 26.5 per cent. Off-street parking slots are 3,834 while 7,089 are building parking.
City Hall, in its Finance Bill, 2019, had demarcated the capital city into three zones for purposes of collection of parking revenue.
Currently, the county government has been charging for parking in a zonal system with Nairobi demarcated into three zones.
Zone I consisted of the central business district (CBD) and Kijabe Street and motorists were to be charged Sh400 as daily parking fee, up from Sh200.
In Zone II will pay Sh200 daily parking fee. This area includes Westlands, Upper Hill, Community, Ngara, Highridge, Industrial Area, Gigiri, Kilimani, Yaya Centre, Allsops, Mwiki, Dagoretti, Kawangware, Kangemi, South B and South C. Other areas within the same Zone are Nairobi West, Lang’ata, Madaraka, Makadara, Buruburu, Umoja, Kayole, Embakasi, Donholm, Muthaiga, Milimani, Hurlingham, Lavington, Karen and Eastleigh.
Motorists who will park in Zone III, which includes all other commercial centres excluding those in Zones I and II, will pay Sh100.
However, in December 2019, Nairobi public transport operators rejected City Hall’s increment of parking fees, especially in the CBD.
Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) also sued City Hall over the decision complaining that city motorists were not given sufficient notice by the city county as required under the law.
