City Hall scanty on eJijipay as it takes back payments

Questions linger over the amount of cash held in the eJijipay platform even as City Hall switched to an internal system for parking fees payment yesterday.

City Hall director of parking Tom Tinega said all parking tickets bought via eJijipay still remain valid.

He said the county had asked JamboPay, which owns the platform, to ensure that the car owners who had already paid are not penalised for non-compliance.

Nairobi adopted its internal revenue collection system effective yesterday and asked motorists to use the new USSD code *235# to pay for parking in the capital city, ending its five-year deal with e-payment firm WebTribe, which owns JamboPay.

“Any money paid for one or three months, the receipts are valid until they expire. There is no vehicle that will be clamped.

“What we are asking JamboPay for is the data on the vehicles that paid and for what period,” Mr Tinega said on Monday.

He added that most of the motorists had paid for seasonal parking on June 6 and June 7 through the JamboPay platform.

The change to an internal revenue collection system puts to end a deal shrouded in controversy that has seen City Hall and JamboPay trade accusations over contract breaches.

Nairobi MCAs had in the past directed Governor Mike Sonko to terminate the deal accusing the firm of contract breach in January 2015 and February last year.

The firm withheld Sh2.82 million for 57 days in January 2015 and Sh51 million last February for six days.

WebTribe chief executive Danson Muchemi, in turn, accused City Hall of political interference and negative publicity.

The contract signed in 2014 required Web Tribe to settle all City Hall transactions within 12 hours for cash transactions and three days for all electronic payments in daily batches.

The deal was set to end in April this year but was extended as City Hall sought to install its internal revenue collection system.