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City Hall doubles parking fee within Nairobi’ CBD

By Hilary Kimuyu December 3rd, 2019 2 min read

Motorists parking their cars in Nairobi’s Central Business District will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets after the County Government announced an increase in fees on Monday.

Car owners will from Wednesday, December 4, pay Sh400 daily to park in the CBD up from the current fee of Sh200.

Buses that are not public service vehicles will be charged Sh1,000 per day to park in the city center.

The new rates are as a result of the enactment into law of the Finance Act 2019, which introduced new tax measures aimed at boosting revenue, County Director of Parking Services Tom Tinega said in a notice on Monday.

CBD and Kijabe are categorised as Zone I in the Nairobi County’s Finance Act 2019.

Motorists in other commercial centers categorized as Zone 2 will be charged Sh200 to park.

Areas under Zone 2 include Westlands, Upperhill, Community, Ngara, Highridge, Industrial Area, Gigiri, Kilimani, Yaya Centre, Allsops, and Mwiki.

Others are Dagoreti, Kawangware, Kangemi, South B, South C, Nairobi West,Lang’ata, Madaraka, Makadara, Buru Buru, Umoja, Kayole, Embakasi, Donholm, Muthaiga, Milimani, Hurligham, Lavington, Karen and Eastleigh.

Motorists parking in commercial centers that are not listed under Zone 1 and Zone 2 will be charged Sh100.

Owners of private cars will part with Sh7,000 for a monthly parking ticket, Sh18,000 for a three-month ticket, Sh32,000 for six months and Sh55,000 for one year.

“Kindly note that you will be required to top up the parking fee payment if migrating to a zone with a higher charge as will be applicable,” reads the notice.

The plans by Governor Mike Sonko’s administration to raise parking fees is not in tandem with his campaign promise of halving the charges to Sh150 from the then Sh300.

In January, Sonko ordered the reduction of parking fees from Sh300 to Sh200 in line with his manifesto.

While reading the county’s budget estimates in July, suspended Finance and Economic Planning Executive Charles Kerich said the charges were part of a raft of measures to address dismal revenue performance in the last financial year.

He said the reduction last year from Sh300 to Sh200 had resulted in significant reduction of revenue as well an increased traffic congestion in the city centre.