Confusion as City Hall keeps mum on parking fee switch

Politics and policy

City Hall remains non-committal on the expected switch to electronic payment for parking space beginning October 1, 2014. A concern for motorists has been the lack of physical receipts with the system only sending a text message confirming that payment has been made. PHOTO | FILE 

By KIARIE NJOROGE, gkiarie@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• County head of revenue Luke Gatimu was quoted on Monday as saying that parking attendants would not be allowed to receive cash from motorists and all receipt books would be withdrawn beginning October 1.
• A concern for motorists has been the lack of physical receipts with the system only sending a text message confirming that payment has been made.

City Hall Tuesday remained non-committal on the expected switch to electronic payment for parking space beginning Wednesday, creating uncertainty among motorists.

County head of revenue Luke Gatimu was quoted on Monday as saying that parking attendants would not be allowed to receive cash from motorists and all receipt books would be withdrawn beginning Wednesday (October 1).

But contacted by the Business Daily Tuesday, Mr Gatimu said the final decision on the expected switch would only be made by a committee.

“The steering committee is supposed to sit this afternoon and confirm if this (switch) will go on beginning October 1,” he said.

Initially, the cashless payment system was to be tested for a week before launch of the e-parking system beginning September 1.

“The plan was to hype the payment system for several weeks up to the end of October with the switch over beginning in November,” said a City Hall official who sought anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The change to a cashless payment system that is being handled by financial vendor Jambopay is meant to cut revenue leakages associated with the current manual system.

READ: Nairobi eyes parking as top earner with e-tickets

Conrad Siteyi of Jambopay said he could not comment on the expected launch date as his company is only contracted to support the technology behind the system.

He added that they had supplied all the necessary equipment to cover the entire county. This includes 371 electronic devices that can read number plates and wirelessly query the database to tell if parking fee for a vehicle has been paid.

Motorists are to open a county mobile account on their phones which they will top up through Equity, Co-operative or Family Bank agents. Once they make payments, these are reflected in the database in real time.

READ: Motorists shun Nairobi’s cashless parking system

A concern for motorists has been the lack of physical receipts with the system only sending a text message confirming that payment has been made.

“A receipt is not mandatory. Once your payment is captured in the database, the attendant will only be interested in what the system says once he queries your number plate from the database,” said Mr Siteyi.

• “But for those who may need the receipt, they can log on to the portal, download the receipt and print it.”