City's new parking pay system starts with hitches

City motorists were unable to pay for parking on Monday using the new parking payment system launched on Sunday night.

Despite the USSD short code (*235#) being easy to use and accessible, some motorists were unable to pay as late as midday.

Those who made payments before 7am said they did not experience any hitches. The problem started after 7am.

A motorist complained to the Star that he could not receive confirmation messages. Others got a message informing them that the code was not working or it was invalid.

The governor's Communications director Elkana Jacob said the county was boosting the new system which might have led to some challenges.

"The county was adding some security features in the system to prevent it from hackers and this might have caused the slow response of payments," he said.

Without giving an accurate figure, City Hall Parking director Tom Tinega said they had received payments, though the numbers were not the usual.

"When we introduce a new system, of course, challenges are expected but I'm certain as we proceed people will be used to the new USSD code and it will be a smooth run."

"The hitches might have been brought up by traffic because maybe the county wasn't expecting a lot of people to start using the new system immediately," he said.

Some motorists complained that the charges of making parking payments were too high compared to what was being charged by JamboPay.

"When I made my payment in the morning, I was charged Sh23 to pay for the Sh200 parking fee which is on the high end compared to the Sh8 which was previously being charged," one motorist said.

The county had not commented on the complaint by press time. 

Finance executive Charles Kerich said the new system is convenient to use as long as one has funds in their M-Pesa.

To make payments, one has to dial the USSD code *235#, the mobile user is given a list of revenue streams to select the section where the payment will be done.

Before, for one to make payments using the E-jijipay, one was required to first download the app in their mobile phones and sign up.

The application was downloaded from the Google playstore for Android smartphone and on Windows phone, from the app store.

Those unable to access through their mobile phones were to register online through www.epayments.nairobi.go.ke.

Some motorists also said they were not aware City Hall and JamboPay were no longer in partnership.

They complained that the county had not made the public aware prior to the termination of JamboPay service on Saturday.

Kerich said the county will hand out flyers, run adverts and use all means to ensure that the public has been notified on the new system.

He also said they will be noting all challenges experienced with the new management system and start fixing the problems right away.

However, they were concerns that motorists had balances in their e-wallet and the county had not made clear on how they would get the money back.

An e-wallet is an electronic wallet account on JamboPay payment gateway that allows the customer to disburse funds and pay for goods.

Without giving a time phrase, City Hall said JamboPay would take the initiative to refund to customers all the money that had been left in the e-wallets.

On Saturday, City Hall ended their contract with JamboPay, which has been collecting the county's revenue since 2014.

Kerich said the fallout with JamboPay was not in bad faith but "they have to surrender quite a number of things inclusive of reports, audit statements, transitional equipment that the county will require".

“We assure Nairobi residents that every effort will be made to ensure a smooth transition,” he added.

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