NEW PARKING CHARGES SUSPENDED TO ALLOW FOR ‘CONSULTATIONS‘
(Posted 18th April 2018)
Kenya Airports Authority has, notably via Twitter, announced the suspension of the highly controversial new parking fees only days after they were put into effect. ‘ We would like to notify the general public that KAA has put on hold the propped new parking rates pending further consultations with our airport stakeholders‘ read the statement on the mini blogging site yesterday, accessed by this correspondent despite KAA – inexplicably and without any response so far to mails sent to management – having blocked @whthome.
The new fees caused an uproar among those accessing JKIA to drop off and pick up passengers and went along with a re-zoning of parking areas, causing yet more confusion in the process.
KAA had also been taken to court where a lobby group is seeking the suspension of the new charges which, as was alleged in the filings, were termed arbitrary and without due consultation with stakeholders. Besides KAA were the Kenya Airport Parking Services and the government of Kenya through the Cabinet Secretaries of Transport and Finance, besides the Attorney General names as co-respondents.
It could not be established if the filing of the legal case directly triggered the suspension of the fees, as otherwise common sense – already gone AWOL after the twitter suspension – generally seems in short supply at KAA and is not likely to have kicked in on this occasion.
