However, the Nairobi County assembly has noted that rogue county officers at City Hall have been pocketing funds meant for loading zones.
In order to tame the rogue officials and seal the loopholes, Nairobi County Assembly has approved a motion to manage the parking slots marked as 'loading areas'.
The mover of the motion, Mihang’o MCA Paul Kados, noted that loading zones are controlled, and the collections could boost the country’s revenue.
“Officers in charge have neglected the zones, they don’t initiate enforcement measures and therefore a lot of corruption has taken place leading to low collection of revenue,” he said.
While moving the motion, Kados who is also the Deputy Speaker, revealed that City Hall’s treasury is not updated on information surrounding loading zones including all locations, numbers and all users in Nairobi.
The management of parking services in Nairobi has been problematic over the years as cartels carted away billions of shillings annually meant for City Hall.
Most of City Hall officials assigned to oversee the payment of parking fees routinely turn a blind eye on the dealings that run into millions of shillings every day.
Unknown to the public, the collections by the parking boys are later shared with the county government officials who prefer to hang around corner shops and other secluded points away from the prying public eye.
Revenue from parking fees is divided into four cluster streams.
They are on-street and off-street parking, public service vehicles seasonal tickets and loading zones for purposes of easy collection of revenue.
A 2019 report by the Nairobi assembly public accounts committee revealed that in the financial year ending June 30, 2017, 1,305,440 vehicles were parked in the 6,125 slots but only 402,401 (31 per cent) paid for parking.
A 2020 report by the Nairobi county assembly’s budget and appropriations committee laid bare how parking attendants are colluding with motorists to deny the county government billions of shillings.
The report revealed that Sh437,500 was lost every day from on-street parking, with many motorists parking in the city centre without paying any fee to City Hall.
It also revealed that the parking department had 396 attendants and 56 inspectorate officers.
However, the officers have become cartels who have turned the money-spinning revenue stream into a fiefdom.
The same year, data revealed that Nairobi had over 12,000 parking slots, 6,125 were for on-street and 311 for off-street parking, 1,601 loading zones, 1,145 private parking slots and 3,250 have been allocated to MCAs, county staff and diplomats.
As highlighted in the county’s medium-term debt management strategy paper for 2021, City Hall was owed Sh811 million worth of loading zones fees by National government institutions and private users.
Among the perceived lucrative areas of interest include parking zones at CBD, Industrial Area, Parklands, loading zones on River Road and car bazaars mostly along Ngong Road.
Supporting the motion, Assembly chairman for transport Musango Maithya noted that parking boys had taken over the loading zones, who at the end of the day report to their “masters.”
“By implementing this motion, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja will not only get rid of cartels but also boost revenue collection,” he said.
By passing the motion, the assembly has challenged Governor Sakaja to identify, automate and mark all loading zones in the city.
Also, the governor has been asked to submit a report within 60 days of the adoption of the motion.
