The Nairobi assembly has put the executive on the spot for failing to collect parking fee from private hospitals and malls.
The assembly on Thursday last week passed a motion by Jubilee nominated MCA Ann Thumbi to regulate private hospital parking.
Thumbi had raised concerns that private parking in the county is not regulated, which had made some private hospitals to charge exorbitantly.
Nominated MCA Emily Oduor, who sits in the County Assembly Finance, Budget and Appropriation Committee, however, said the issue had been brought up in last year's Finance bill.
She said the executive was given the go-ahead to charge parking revenue from the institutions.
Oduor told the Star that the committee had even provided the executive with the methods they would use to charge the institutions.
"It was a very big revenue stream that we included in the bill. Unfortunately, one year down the line, the executive has not effected that and they keep sweeping it under the carpet," she said.
"We sat down as a committee and agreed that we must collect revenue. They either give the county revenue or they give us free parking," she said.
Nominated MCA June Ndegwa said the county should collect revenue from the private hospitals and use it to improve health services in public dispensaries and hospitals.
"If a hospital has 100 spots for parking and charges a minimum of Sh100 for 30 minutes to an hour, that is Sh10,000 in an hour, Sh80,000 in a day. Considering Sh2 million in a month on the lower side, if we have 10 hospitals that is close to Sh12 million the county could use," Ndegwa said.
The motion urges the county executive to develop a policy to regulate parking charges by private hospitals to prevent the exploitation of patients and the general public through high parking fees.
Minority chief whip Peter Imwatok said the parking charges are run by cartels without the interest of patients in hospitals.
He said that If a good concession time for parking is not put in place other than the usual 30 minutes allowance, it should be scrapped off completely.
" We are losing lives as people are negotiating to get support somewhere because there is no parking. It is important for these hospitals to separate those who want to take advantage of these parking and park the whole day because the hospital is safe," Imwatok explained.
Kenyatta National Hospital was mentioned to be among those charging patients for parking.
Kilimani MCA Moses Ogeto, however, said that private developers "should not be deprived of their rights".
Instead he urged Thumbi to bring a bill that will sanitise private parking developers.
