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Kenya: Council Cancels Firm's Parking Deal
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The Nation (Nairobi)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Amina Kibirige
Nairobi
The Mombasa council has cancelled a contract with a private firm that was managing parking services in the town due to "irregularities" in the deal.
However, Kenya Airports Parking Service (Kaps ) director Shaibu Mgandi said the contract was binding and his officers would continue with their duties until they are served with a letter from the Ministry of Local Government or the Town Clerk confirming the cancellation.
Motorists also expressed disappointment at the revocation of the contract and asked the council to increase the number of parking attendants if they are to offer efficient service.
The full council meeting, which voted to terminate the contract, also voted to issue title deeds for over 360 underdeveloped plots in five schemes in the area.
Four of the affected schemes - Mikindani, Chaani, Miritini and Migadini - are on mainland west while Khadija is on the North Coast. The plots were allocated 29 years ago, but the applications had raised concerns over alleged irregularity.
The owners will now be issued with title deeds before the council can start asking them to pay land rates.
Mayor Ahmed Mohdhar, who chaired Wednesday's meeting, said the parking services had been handed back to the council.
He said the contract, entered into by the council and the company known as Kenya Airport Parking Services (Kaps), favoured the parking company and was not in the public interest.
Studied contract
"Elected councillors and I have studied the contract entered into by the council and concluded that it is punitive," the mayor told journalists after the meeting. The contract was awarded to Kaps Municipal Parking Services Limited on May 11, 2006.
The cancellation came just over a week after a Mombasa-based lobby group went to court seeking to stop the company from collecting parking fees from motorists in the town. The Coast Residents Platform had claimed that the company's operations were "illegal and unfair".
Mayor Mohdhar said the revocation of the contract "was as a result of several loopholes cited by the councillors".
He then ordered all council officers seconded to Kaps to report back to the council with immediate effect. He also advised the public to pay parking fees to council's parking attendants.
Renewal option
According to him, clauses such as the one giving the company a contract period of 15 years and a renewal option of 10 years were "unrealistic".
It was also unfair for Kaps to pay the council Sh1 million per month yet it collected more than Sh600,000 per day.
"The payment terms were supposed to be Sh1 million for the first three years and thereafter an annual increase at a rate of 10 per cent, yet the council has the capability and capacity to collect revenue and use it to provide services for the benefit of the residents," the mayor said.
According to him, details on the tendering process, including the number of firms that had submitted bids, had not been made available to him.
Each parking ticket cost Sh50 in the Coastal town.
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Additional reporting by KNA
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