PS Kibicho meets taxi operators to resolve stalemate with Uber

The stalemate between Uber Taxi Services and the Kenya Taxi Cab Association is expected to be resolved today (Monday) after a meeting called by the government over the recent conflict between taxi association and Uber operators in Nairobi.

Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho is in a meeting with Uber Taxi Services management team and the Kenya Taxi Cab Association in an attempt to resolve their row.

Earlier on Wednesday Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery had directed Kibicho to convene a meeting between the two organisations to discuss the stalemate and possibly find a solution.

On Wednesday, the Kenya United Taxi Organisation issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government to resolve the standoff between them and Uber failure to which they threatened to hold demonstrations and block major roads in the country’s economic capital of Nairobi.

According to the organisation’s spokesperson Ashford Mwangi, at the end of the seven-days, the taxi drivers will park their cars and peacefully demonstrate on the streets of Nairobi in a bid to kick out the competing organisation.

“No investor jumps onto an ongoing business without consulting stakeholders involved like Uber has done,” said Mwangi.

“No investor should drive away locals like Uber is trying to do and no investor should stimulate a strategy that will bring monopoly in order to retain business after they drive everyone else away.”

The Kenya Association of Taxi and Cabs has been raised concerns since the entry of Uber, which uses a mobile app and offers fares less than half the price charged by conventional taxis, into the Kenyan market, a situation that has not settled in well with the tradition.

The attacks have added Nairobi to the list of over 300 cities where Uber has ‘disrupted’ the taxi business with fares as low as Sh90 a kilometer.