Nairobi News

City Hall has stepped up efforts to reclaim grabbed public parking bays within the city centre in a move aimed at increasing the number of available parking spaces.

Nairobi County government director of parking Mr Tom Tinega said the department is targeting over 50 grabbed parking areas in the Central Business District (CBD) in order to plug the gap experienced by motorists.

Mr Tinega stated that three parking bays, including Nyayo House parking which is opposite Intercontinental hotel and Haile Sellasie parking next to Shell petrol station with a capacity of 200 slots, have already been repossessed.

He said that the parking bay between Nyayo House and Intercontinental hotel had been grabbed by a private developer who had converted it into a private property.

PARKING PAYMENT MACHINES

At the one along Haile Selassie Avenue next to Shell Petrol station, the grabber had already installed parking payment machines at the site.

“We have started the campaign in the city centre where a number of public parking bays have been grabbed by individuals who have redesigned the parking slots for their own personal benefit. We are targeting other 50 areas.

“So far the county government has reclaimed three parking bays in the CBD with over 200 parking slots over the last one month,” added Mr Tinega on Monday.

The parking director explained that the crackdown will be intensified over the course of the next few weeks before it moves out of the CBD with the aim of repossessing all the grabbed public parking bays across the capital city.

He said that the operation is in line with City Hall’s plan to avail more public parking slots in the CBD before the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transport system, which is being rolled out in conjunction with the national government.

“We want to warn the grabbers that we won’t entertain impunity. Governor Mike Sonko issued a declaration that his administration will not condone land grabbing and that is why we are on with this campaign to ensure we increase the parking slots in Nairobi by reclaiming the grabbed areas,” he said.

TOTAL PARKING SPACE

The total car parking space in the CBD is 14, 864, of which 3,941 are on-street parking, representing 26.5 percent of the total. Off-street parking slots are 3, 834 while 7,089 are building parking.

Some 10,399 of the city’s parking slots are for daily parking (private motorists) and seasonal ticket holders (matatus).

In March this year, in its 2018-19 County Fiscal Strategy Paper to improve revenue collection, City Hall promised to reduce daily downtown parking fees to attract motorists who have been avoiding public parking.

The reduction was aimed to increase revenue collection and improve services following complaints that the county government was losing millions of shillings in revenue yearly as many motorists prefer cheaper private parking.

There have been plans by the county to increase the parking slots to 20,000 to raise revenue from the sector, which has been declining since 2013, to at least Sh3 billion annually.

As at December 31 last year, the county had generated only Sh787 million against the annual target of Sh3.5 billion. In 2016/17 financial year, it generated Sh1.97 billion against a target of Sh3.54 billion.