County Government of Nairobi Rectify Parking Fee Anomaly
Imagine not being in the vicinity of the Nairobi City County but receiving a Short Message Service (SMS) on your phone demanding that you pay a parking fee of Kshs. 200 and a penalty of Kshs. 2,000 for parking services you did not enjoy. This was the predicament that befell Mr. Julius Wadeyua.
Mr. Wadeyua complained to the Commission alleging unresponsiveness by the County to correct an anomaly that billed him for a parking service in Nairobi. According to him, he received two SMSs from NRBServices on the afternoon of 6th March 2023 claiming that his vehicle had parked in the Ngara area but he failed to pay the requisite parking fee. The second SMS then demanded that he pays a parking fee of Kshs. 200 together with a penalty of Kshs. 2,000. However, at the time and date indicated in the text messages, the said vehicle was not in Nairobi. The predicament impelled him to reach out to the County on the provided mobile number 0709014747 but he got no response pushing him to seek the intervention of the Commission.
The Commission by way of inquiry took up the matter with the County Secretary, Nairobi City County. In his response to the Commission, the County Secretary indicated that indeed there was a querying error where one of the revenue officers inadvertently entered the details of a different vehicle and this resulted in a misplaced digit. This led to the system charging the vehicle belonging to Mr. Wadeyua with a parking fee and consequently penalties. He, however, assured the Commission that the anomaly had been corrected.
“Once this error was discovered, the charges and attendant penalties were reversed and, therefore, the vehicle does not have any charges relating to parking fees for that day. Consequently, we have instituted processes which we feel will address issues universally and prevent them from occurring again in the future,” read a letter from the County Secretary to the Commission.