Digital taxi operators in Kenya went on strike today. The strike is meant to address poor pay, bad working environment, and a bad relationship with county governments countrywide. In Nairobi, the taxi operators drove and walked into the city’s central business district in an organised movement that halted at the doors of City Hall.
At these venues, the drivers in song and chants could be heard shouting the slogans, “Uber Shuka”, “Bolt Shuka”, “Faras Shuka” and more. These were chants urging the various taxi platforms licensed in the country to come down and seek constructive dialogue with the drivers. City hall marked the beginning as the drivers moved to Uber, Bolt offices, Little Cab and finally NTSA.
Bolt Kenya was able to give the drivers an audience and received their letter containing grievances. However, Uber did not give the drivers audience and they were unable to share their letter. Little Cab was receptive to the drivers, taking their letter and promising to set a minimum fare of KES 300 for all trips.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) also did not give the drivers an audience. The drivers want prices raised to improve their revenue. They also want the frequent discounts offered to clients to cease claiming the e-taxi apps don’t cover the discount cost as promised.
Non Uniformed County Officers
Digital taxi drivers were at city hall to demand audience with Johnston Sakaja, the Nairobi County governor. However, the governor was nowhere to be seen at the time of writing. In his place, Mr Patrick Analo, the City County Chief officer Urban Development and Planning, stepped out to address the drivers
One of the drivers’ chief demands is the provision of designated special parking bays to be used as pick-up and drop-off points for digital taxis within Nairobi’s CBD. These spots are supposed to exist following an exercise by the Nairobi County Chief Officer for Mobility Bonface Karimi Nyamu last year in April.
The drivers claim this is not the case leading to harassment by county officers when they are picking and dropping off clients. Claims by Patrick Analo that the spots are working as desired were quickly shutdown by the protesting drivers.
Another complaint by the drivers is harassment by county officers as they go by their work. The eTaxi drivers demanded that the Nairobi city county officers should not enter a vehicle whilst a passenger is still onboard.
In addition, they claimed that non uniformed county officers are often pouncing on them in the city and extorting them. On this particular matter of county officers not having official uniform, Patrick Analo stated that the taxi drivers should never be flagged or allow such an individual to enter a car. Analo claimed that these rogue officers are mostly former county officers who know the county bylaws and take advantage of their past experience to fleece drivers.
Transport disruptions have been experienced on the apps due to the strike, especially in Nairobi. A look at the apps shows minimal number of drivers online. In particular, car operators are in few areas with only motorbikes available in others. Charges are also higher than normal with most digital taxi available marked busy.
The strike affected services on all platforms with the main ones Uber, Bolt, Little Cab, Faras suffering disruptions. There have been reports of taxis being flagged down and passengers asked to alight to ensure all drivers observe the day of industrial action. Some taxi drivers had their tyres slashed for failing to heed the solidarity call.
