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The Kenya Government through the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has highlighted a list of proposed new rules that target taxi apps such as Uber, Little, In-driver, Wasili cabs and Bolt in the country.
In a bid to regulate the hastily growing industry, the NTSA has proposed the following regulations under the Traffic (Digital Hailing Service) Rules 2020:
- All vehicles wishing to operate under any taxi-hailing app will need to be licensed to do so, same applies to the drivers for a fee of KES 1500 for cars and KES 500 for drivers. These licenses are renewable every three years
- Taxi-hailing services shall have to renew their licenses every three years for a fee of KES 500,000
- Taxi-hailing services are required to have working customer care lines 24/7 with customer messages being replied to within 24 hours
- Taxi-hailing services are required to lockout drivers from working for 4 hours after they clock 8 hours of work in a 24 hour period
- Taxi-hailing services are prohibited from charging a commission of more than 15% per trip. Neither are they allowed to charge additional fees to the drivers
- Vehicles serving under any taxi-hailing app must have a sticker on the front and the back identifying the vehicle as a digital taxi
- Vehicles serving under any taxi-hailing app will be required to have the following items:
- Hands-free phone holder
- First-aid kit
- Fire extinguisher
- Drivers are prohibited from refusing to drive passengers to their selected destination after accepting the ride as long as the passenger is in “proper demeanour”
- Any person who breaks any of the rules stated will be liable to a fine not exceeding KES 20,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both
The full list of proposed rules can be found on NTSA’s website. However, the NTSA welcomes public participation where any stakeholders can give their feedback on the rules, details are as seen below:
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