Technology is enabling motorists to pay for parking in Nairobi using their mobile phones or online platforms. Generally, mobile technologies are making it easier for people to do cashless transactions, including paying for services, shopping, transferring money amongst many other things.
By eliminating the need to physically make payments to agents or visit facilities to do cash transactions, mobile and digital technologies have the potential to improve efficiency and convenience while reducing cases of corruption and crime.
Using a mobile phone to pay for parking in Nairobi or any other town in Kenya is an easy process that takes a few minutes. In addition to Nairobi, other towns and counties where motorists can pay for parking and services using mobile phones include Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Kiambu, Eldoret, Meru, and more. Each of these uses a different USSD code or digital platform. For Nairobi, the motorists need to dial *235#, the Nairobi parking USSD code, and following the steps below.
How to pay for parking in Nairobi by phone
To pay for parking in Nairobi using your mobile phone, use the following steps
- Dial *235# – This will display the Nairobi City County e-payment menu – giving you five options to choose from.
- For parking select option 1 – This has daily parking, seasonal parking, off-street parking or penalties.
- Select 1 for Daily parking or 2 for seasonal parking
- Key in your Vehicle Registration Number
- Select Zone where you want to park – CBD, Yaya, Westlands, etc
- Choose your vehicle type – bus, lorry, canter, private, taxi, etc.
- Note the amount required and press 1 to Proceed with the payment. The parking charges depend on the vehicle type and are higher for buses and trailers, and lowest for private cars. – You will receive an Mpesa pop-up asking you Do you want to pay Ksh 200 to NAIROBI CITY COUNTY GOVERNMENT Account no. ******?. If so, enter your Mpesa pin and complete the transaction.
- Once paid, you will receive a confirmation message from Nouveta for Nairobi County Government.
A typical message reads like this;
NAIROBI COUNTY RevenueSure We have received your parking payment of KES 200.00 for vehicle K**123*. Transaction ref: PKN*****
Please verify that the information and especially the car registration are correct otherwise you may have paid for a different vehicle.
Pay for parking in Nairobi using the online portal
Other than mobile you can also pay for parking using the internet based online platform. To do so,
Go to the Nairobi county parking portal here
Fill in the required information and make the payment as necessary.
Benefits of paying parking using digital systems
Generally, the mobile parking phone-based parking offers several benefits to the authorities and motorists. This includes improved revenue collection, convenience, lower operational costs, reduced corruption, etc. The mobile or online payments will also save time for the motorists since they do not have to go looking for parking attendants.
Nairobi City County has come up with a new revenue collection system that allows motorists to pay for their parking fees using a newly introduced shortcode (USSD).