Advertisers displaying prices on billboards face jail term
People pass in front of a billboard on a city street. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Promoters of prices of goods and services in Nairobi face a Sh100,000 fine or a five-year jail term.
Advertisers promoting prices of goods and services on outdoor signs in Nairobi will face a Sh100,000 fine or a five-year jail term after a policy restricting the practice came into force last Friday.
The Outdoor Advertising and Signage policy will also see City Hall control the spacing between billboards to reduce the cluttering of streets with publicity materials.
The policy is anchored on sections three and 30 of the Physical Planning Act, which set a Sh100,000 fine or a five-year jail term or both for those in breach.
In a notice published on Friday, Nairobi Finance executive Gregory Mwakanongo said that all licence renewals for outdoor advertisements will be processed on the basis of the new policy.
“No person shall erect or cause or permit to be erected or maintained any sign referring to a price or change in price of merchandise except in a shop window, or on the article itself,” the policy reads.
City Hall did not respond to the Business Daily’s queries on reasons for the policy.
The directive means that advertisers will be unable to entice customers using price changes and offers on billboards, street pole adverts and other outdoor marketing platforms.
Growing consumerism in Nairobi has seen the mushrooming of outdoor advertisements featuring products such as cars.
Besides pricing, the policy seeks to reduce the number of signposts placed along roads including billboards — whose number and size have been growing in the last decade — and lit box advertisements placed on street light poles.
“Along major transport corridors, no more than one advertising structure should be visible along a given sight line,” the policy says.
“The large billboards advertising products and services will not be associated solely with revenue generation without their impact on visual pollution being critically addressed.”
Street pole adverts, states the policy, should be more widely spaced as had been envisioned in 2000 when they were introduced before the directive was violated.
“The light boxes should be installed after every two poles,” the policy says. The spacing requirement means advertisers have to forfeit some prime areas along major highways like Thika Road, Mombasa Road, Ngong Road, Lang’ata Road and Waiyaki Way.
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