When Kenyan drivers switched off Uber, Bolt, and Faras on November 17, Little Cab became the last app standing, and the company watched new registrations flood in.
The strike was organized by the Amalgamation of Digital Transport Organizations, which called drivers, vehicle owners, and boda boda riders off the apps to demonstrate against low earnings, high commissions, and what they described as opaque pricing that made it impossible to predict take-home pay.
Joint chairs Daniel Manga and Justin Nyaga issued the directive on November 3, giving platforms two weeks’ notice before the nationwide shutdown.
However, Little Cab stayed online throughout. The company ran its onboarding teams around the clock to process applications from drivers jumping ship, and riders who needed a way to get around suddenly had one reliable option.
Corporate clients also signed up in bulk, attracted by stable pricing while competitors were either offline or dealing with chaotic surges as scattered drivers logged back on.
The company charges an 18% commission (the legal cap under Kenya’s Digital Hailing Regulations from 2022) and has occasionally dropped as low as 15%.
More importantly for drivers, Little structures its promotions so the credited amount goes directly to them, and pricing adjustments are tied to observable market conditions rather than algorithmic black boxes. Drivers who made the switch said they could finally see where their money was going.
CEO Kamal Budhabatti framed it as vindication rather than opportunism. Drivers wanted transparency, and riders wanted cars that actually showed up. Little had been built around that, and the strike made the contrast impossible to ignore.
Kenya’s ride-hailing market has been unstable for years. Drivers staged a 5-day nationwide strike in July last year over pay and taxes, then walked out again for two days in late April of this year, shutting down Uber, Bolt, and even Little Cab in major cities.
A midweek switch-off in early November hit airport routes hard, with travelers at JKIA and Wilson airports scrambling for alternatives.
The November 17 action was different in scale and backing. The Transport Workers Union of Kenya announced plans to file a constitutional petition against Uber and Bolt for violating the 18% commission cap and unfair labor practices.
Left-wing political groups endorsed the strike publicly, turning what started as a pay dispute into a broader challenge to how global platforms operate in Kenya.
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Driver groups argue that even with the 18% cap, unilateral fare changes, incentive clawbacks, and sudden account deactivations leave many worse off than before regulation.
The government capped commissions but didn’t resolve the power imbalance, and drivers are using coordinated log-offs to force the issue.
For travelers, that means Kenya’s ride-hailing ecosystem is now unpredictable. Apps that were the default for airport transfers and city movement can vanish during peak hours if labor actions ramp up.
The November 17 strike left passengers at Nairobi’s airports waiting longer, paying more, or finding no cars at all.
Little Cab’s gain wasn’t just about being online when competitors weren’t. It was about offering a model that made sense to drivers at a moment when the alternatives had burned through their goodwill.
Budhabatti said the company would keep scaling carefully to maintain service quality, sticking with fair driver pay and transparent pricing. No celebration of disruption, just drivers and riders making a choice.
Whether that holds depends on how the broader dispute plays out. With unions preparing legal challenges and strike organizers backed by political groups, Kenya’s ride-hailing market is heading into its busy travel season with unresolved structural problems.
Little Cab had one very good day. The question is whether it can turn that into a sustainable edge in a market where trust between platforms and drivers has collapsed.
