City Hall finally cuts parking fees after court order

There was relief for Nairobi motorists Tuesday after the county government finally reverted to the Sh200 daily parking fee following a court directive.

City Hall had continued charging Sh400 since Wednesday last week after doubling the fee within the city centre. This was even after a court ordered the increase to be frozen until a case against the county filed by the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) is heard.

In securing the suspension order, Cofek had argued that city motorists were not given sufficient notice by City Hall as required under the law.

City Hall Director of Parking Services Tom Tinega said the delay to revert to the old charges was cased by Cofek’s failure to serve the county government with the court order in time.

He said the county government’s legal department only received the court order on Monday afternoon, thereby giving him the legal leeway to effect the changes.

“I received the document on Monday at 4pm and we had to interpret it before implementing the order. I follow instructions and court orders must be obeyed no matter what. We would not want to go against a court order,” said Mr Tinega yesterday.

Cofek Secretary-General Stephen Mutoro, on Monday, maintained that the county’s legal department was served with the court order on Thursday, December 5 and should have therefore implemented the directive.

One Monday, Cofek had threatened to sue the county government for contempt of court following the delay.

Mr Mutoro said that they will be agitating for the county to compensate those who suffered loss while paying more for daily parking fee while the order was in force.