City Affairs

City Hall repossesses 25 unpaid, grabbed loading zones in CBD

An aeriel view of Nairobi City. (Photo: Natalia Pushchina)

By Maureen Kinyanjui | Tuesday, June 11, 2024

The loading zones will be converted back into parking slots which will increase parking capacity in the CBD.

At least 25 unpaid and grabbed loading zones in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD) have been repossessed by the Nairobi County Government.

An update by City Hall on Tuesday morning stated that the exercise was aimed at boosting revenue collection.

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"This move comes in response to Governor Johnson Sakaja's call to boost county revenue collection and restore order in the city," read the statement.

The loading zones will be converted back into parking slots, which will increase parking capacity in the CBD.

The management of parking services in Nairobi has proved problematic over the years as cartels carted away billions of shillings annually meant for City Hall.

Cluster streams

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.

The parking department has 396 attendants and 56 inspectorate officers.

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.

In May 2020, 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 were allocated to MCAs, county staff and diplomats.

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.

In 2021, the county's medium-term debt management strategy paper revealed that City Hall was owed Sh811 million worth of loading zone 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.