Editorials

EDITORIAL: City Hall should obey its own own bylaws

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City Hall, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Reports that the Nairobi county government has defied its own bylaw to continue collecting Sh300 daily parking fee from motorists are worrying.

Members of the County Assembly had in November passed a law that reduced the fee to Sh200 and it was subsequently signed by the governor.

Motorists are now caught up in a quandary with parking attendants and the electronic payment platform still charging them Sh300.

They have no alternative but to pay up lest their vehicles are clamped, attracting hefty fees in the process.

We urge City Hall to step up and address the matter urgently. There is need to ensure that impunity is not allowed to fester in the public sector.

It would indeed be wrong for the county government to announce that it has lowered the parking fees yet its staff are totally ignorant about it.

According to the County Budget and Appropriation Committee, it has received complaints from motorists and is making follow-ups on why the new fee has not been implemented.

The operator of the electronic payment platform said they were still awaiting official communication from the City Hall administration.

It is a clear case of the right hand not knowing what the left one is doing.

When the parking fee was reduced, the governor was quoted as saying that it would reduce the burden on city motorists who are paying more for fuel following the introduction of an eight percent value added tax on the commodity last year.

The main goals when the parking was increased to Sh300 were to increase revenue collection for City Hall and to reduce traffic congestion in the city.

However, revenue leakages saw the county government continue to lose millions of shillings daily through theft by its staff.

The traffic congestion problem has also never been resolved.

Even as we urge City Hall to respect its own bylaws, time has come to find a lasting solution to the traffic congestion problem.

There is also urgent need to plug the loopholes that have seen the county government lose money.

Populist decisions that do not improve the welfare of city residents should be abandoned.