Ruto’s office tops the list of parking fees defaulters

The Mike Mbuvi Sonko-led Nairobi County depends more on the revenue generated from parking fees. The rate at which some government offices are defaulting these fees is threatening the operations of the Country’s capital. Deputy President William Ruto’s office tops the list of parking fees defaulters, City Hall data shows, in what could be another highlight of a biting budget cut.

The DP’s office has an accumulated bill of Sh203 million, topping the list of 11 government offices that owe City Hall millions of shillings.

The DP’s office has not paid Sh189.08 million for 113 parking spaces on Harambee Avenue and another Sh14.06 million for 10 slots along Parliament Lane from 2014, documents show.

Mr Ruto’s office is running on a slim budget of Sh880 million this financial year.

In total, government departments have failed to clear parking fees totalling Sh678 million, City Hall says.

Director of Parking Tom Tinega told the Business Daily that City Hall had written demand notices several times to the institutions for clearance of the debts that stood at Sh677.6 million at the end of last month.

“We do not know if it is default because we have been making demand notes to them. Some like Parliament and Kenya Revenue Authority used to pay a while back but they are not doing that now,” Mr Tinega said.

The High Court owes the county Sh105.1 million for 72 parking slots in Milimani since 2012 while the Central Bank is yet to pay Sh77.2 million for 46 slots from a similar period.

He added that the Governor, Mike Sonko, would talk to the high ranking institutions that include Central Bank of Kenya, the National Assembly and the Ministry of Finance for settlement of the arrears.

“It is an issue the Governor can address, maybe it has not been brought to his attention,” Mr Tinega added.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KBS), Kenya Police and Ministry of Finance have not paid Sh42.3 million for 64 slots since 1999.

The huge debts by the national government institutions come amid City Hall’s inability to hit its revenue targets for parking since 2013.

Nairobi collected Sh1.88 billion in parking fees for the year ended last June which was an 18 per cent dip from Sh2.05 billion in the 2016-17 period.

The fall in parking collections which is a key revenue stream for Nairobi highlights the county’s struggles to meet it targets.

City Hall collected Sh10.1 billion in the year ended last June which was a Sh800 million from the 2016-17 year.

A clamped vehicle.

The year- on- year fall has been blamed on weak resources to nab defaulters and corruption amongst City Hall staff, piling pressure on the Governor Sonko-led administration to provide basic services to Nairobians like water, health services and roads.

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