City Hall, the seat of Nairobi’s county government, was Wednesday thrown into confusion after striking workers switched off electricity and refused to collect revenue as the employees’ go-slow entered its second week.
The power switch-off paralysed operations across City Hall Annex offices and other departments including the director of revenue and cash offices.
The capital has been losing tens of millions of shillings every day as the strike affected collections for parking, land rates and annual business permits.
City Hall collects an average of Sh100 million daily through cash and the JamboPay e-payment system.
Director of Parking Tom Tinega said the blackout and workers strike had stalled operations at his offices.
“There is a blackout since morning but I’m not sure of the cause,” Mr Tinega said in an interview with a local daily.
A section of county workers who spoke anonymously said they had switched off power connections to City Hall Annex to ground operations.
More than 15,000 county workers downed their tools after City Hall failed to implement a salary increment of between 15 and 20 percent provided in an agreement signed in May 2017.
The county government had promised it would be effected last month.
Parking attendants within the city centre have refused to charge motorists who pay Sh200 on a daily basis. Others pay monthly or have seasonal and annual tickets.
“There is nothing happening now. Parking and market fees have been hit most because they are collected daily and the workers are not on duty. The loss is huge but I cannot quantify for now,” Mr Tinega said Wednesday.
Operations at the cash office are also affected as the workers have been joining their colleagues in the strike every day from mid-morning since last week.
County workers at the populous Marikiti Market have not been collecting cash payments from pick-ups and lorries that access the facility to deliver and collect fresh produce like tomatoes and potatoes across the country and the East African region.
About 90 lorries and 50 pick-ups access the populous city market on average, beginning midnight to the next day.
City Hall charges lorries Sh3,000 while pick-ups pay Sh1,500; totalling to about Sh345,000 every day. Workers have also not been collecting cash from the traders since last Tuesday, leading to huge losses.
The protracted strike is set to hit hard City Hall’s revenues and lead to one of the lowest monthly collections under Governor Mike Sonko’s regime.
A meeting between the workers and the County Secretary on Tuesday evening did not bear fruit.
Nairobi has struggled to meet its revenue targets since the onset of devolution in 2013 as weak systems, corruption and lack of resources failed to nab rate cheats.
City Hall raised Sh10.2 billion in the year to June against a target of Sh17.2 billion, putting it under financial pressure to deliver quality services like basic health to city residents.