Nairobi County Implements New Regulations for Motorists

Nairobi County government is implementing new regulations for motorists and parking business services owners as it seeks to expand its revenue bracket.

Motorists who depend on big business establishments and malls might incur increased prices as the law states that any establishment offering parking services in Nairobi will begin paying a single business permit fee between Ksh.500,000 and Ksh.2million annually.

Establishments with a 50 vehicles capacity will pay Ksh.500,000 annually while those with more than 100 vehicles capacity will Ksh.2 million.

This may prompt malls to increase parking fees in order to cover the extra costs.

“We have seen business offering their spaces for private parking. As much as we encourage it, this is the sole work of the National Government to give parking services. It is for this reason that we introduced the new SBP for such establishments.”Said Robert Mbatia, Nairobi County Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson.

Previously, only businesses offering commercial private parking services required a business permit but the bill states that even establishments which offer parking services will have to pay for permits.

“This means that anybody offering parking services will now have to get a license from the county government because that is like operating a business and so that is the charge for the business.”

The new levies are contained in the amended Nairobi City Council Finance Bill, 2021 which was approved on February 15, 2021, by the National County Assembly.

They are part of measures aimed at raising Ksh.19.8 billion for the county government, as own source revenue target before the financial year ends in June 30, 2022.

Other strategies which city hall will use to boost revenue include; following up land defaulters and enforcing new land rates, which is aimed to collect Ksh.5.1 billion. It also seeks to collect Ksh.1.2 billion from outdoor advertising and billboards.

It also aims to collect Ksh.1.8 billion from building permits and approvals.

This has been observed, as data from the National Construction Authority (NCA) which was compiled by the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) showed that application fees increased from Ksh.215 million between July and December 2020 to Ksh.479 million in 2021