Auditor General Edward Ouko has questioned Nairobi county’s failure to account for Sh238 million raised from vehicle parking fees.
In an audit report for the year 2015/2016, Ouko noted that of the 2,117,165 vehicles eligible to pay parking fees, only 1,321,565 vehicles paid.
This means that 795,600 vehicles or 38 per cent of the expected payees did not pay. Parking fee in Nairobi is Sh300 per day.
“The management is yet to put in place adequate measures to cap the non-compliance,” he says in the reports for the period under review.
In 2017, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko said parking fees will be Sh150 if he is elected the next governor.
At his manifesto launch, the governor also said vegetable vendors will not pay a single coin to do business in the city.
In 2013, Governor Evans Kidero increased parking fees from Sh140 to Sh300. This enraged drivers. Governor Mike Sonko had pledged during campaigns to restore it to Sh140.
City Hall also intends to increase the number of parking slots from 12,000 to 20,000 with the aim to collect least Sh3 billion annually.
These measures are contained in the Treasury’s 2018-19 County Fiscal Strategy Paper to improve revenue collection, which has been declining since 2013.
