Sonko introduces drones to monitor parking services

janet ndila

September 11, 2017 12:30 PM

The project comes against the backdrop of a revelation that the city loses approximately Sh18 million every month in parking fees.

Nairobi County government under the leadership of Mike Sonko is set to introduce drones to monitor parking services in the city.

According to the CEO of Web Tribe Company Danson Muchemi, tasked to operate the drones, motorists will have a hard time dodging the Sh300 parking fees because the drones will rely an aerial imagery data to identify and nab defaulters.

The Web Tribe who are already in charge of automating 14 county revenue streams will also take charge of the drones on behalf of the County government.

“The drones would be used to determine the number of cars in given parking slots and the data cross-checked against the day’s cash collections. This will show how many motorists have not paid for parking.” Said Web Tribe CEO Danson Muchemi

Muchemi also said the initiative was meant to increase revenue collection by ensuring that all parking space users paid for the service.

He said the county had requested two drones for a pilot exercise expected to cost the county government Sh10 million.

“The drones will fly across the parking areas in the city twice a day, capturing and relaying the data to our servers. Each of the drones will cost us Sh4 million and another Sh2 million will be used to set up a software to run it,” said Muchemi.

He explained that a request had already been made in writing to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA). He said the county had requested two drones for a pilot exercise expected to cost the county government Sh10 million.