Female ride hailing drivers take selfies during protests outside the Ministry of Transport offices in Nairobi on November 18, 2025.
Kenyans should brace themselves for higher fares as digital taxi drivers yesterday won the fight for new rates.
The government directed digital taxi app owners to improve the rates, which the Ministry of Transport said should be aligned with the pricing advisory the Automobile Association of Kenya (AAK) issued in 2023, within a week.
The new rates will see drivers get Sh33.1 per kilometre for vehicles of up to 1050 cc, up from Sh22. For those ranging from 1051cc to 1300cc, the figure will rise to Sh36.8 from Sh26.
These new rates mark an increase of about 50 per cent.
The move marks the strongest government intervention yet in the long-running dispute between the app companies and the drivers who termed the current fares exploitative and unsustainable.
Mr Paul King’ori, the director for Road and Railways Transport, speaking on behalf of Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir on Tuesday, said: “The first directive is that app owners must use the AAK rates. We have also communicated with the World Bank to engage a consultancy to help draft the National Taxi Pricing Policy as a long-term strategy to improve the sector. Let us be patient.”
Ride hailing apps drivers protest in Nairobi on November 18, 2025.
Speaking to hundreds of digital taxi drivers gathered at the Transport Ministry offices in Nairobi, Mr King’ori then read out what the 2023 AAK advisory recommended for digital taxi fares.
“You (digital taxi app owners) should provide a formal response to this office within seven days outlining the steps you have taken to address these legitimate grievances,” he said, reading directly the letter signed by Mr Chirchir to the digital taxi app companies. “We have given them a week because the companies are global and must consult widely.”
The new rates, Mr Elijah Orembe, a digital taxi driver since 2011, said, would be much better compared to what he is currently getting for his 1,300cc vehicle.
“In 2011, we were getting as high as Sh67 per kilometre. I used to make Sh5,000 per day and even bought three more taxis, which I gave to other drivers who would pay me Sh2,000 per day. The business has become so bad that I had to sell the extra vehicles because my drivers could not afford to bring me something tangible every day,” he said.
According to Justus Mutua, the spokesperson of the Amalgamation of Digital Taxis Associations in Kenya, the low pricing has led to shrinking earnings, overexertion, inability to service car loans and a rising rate of vehicle repossessions.
“After several engagements with the ministry and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), we agreed that the Transport CS will write to the digital taxi app owners directing them to comply with the AAR rates. We are grateful to God that this has come to pass,” he said.
Mr Justin Nyagah, the chairperson of the association, termed the government's intervention “a reason for celebration” and said that they will continue to push for better terms for digital taxi drivers.
NTSA Head of Licensing for Transport Network Companies Yahya Ahmed told drivers that their concerns had been fully taken into account.
While the 2023 advisory had been widely publicised at the time, it was never formally enforced, partly due to competing interests, lack of a unified regulatory framework and the absence of a national pricing policy for the digital taxi economy.
Ride hailing apps drivers protest in Nairobi on November 18, 2025.
For drivers, the government has offered a rare moment of relief, with many saying a government-backed fare structure is the only way to prevent app owners from unilaterally lowering prices in the name of competition.
Ride-hailing firms have not yet publicly responded, but operators at the meeting said they expect intense negotiation in the coming days.
“If they fail to comply within seven days, we will hit the streets and take our protests to their doorsteps and not to the Ministry of Transport,” a driver said.
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