Transport

Women taxi drivers are fashionable in Nairobi

08 May, 2018

Women passengers favour women taxi drivers in Nairobi.

Women taxi drivers are on the increase in Nairobi thanks to the spread of taxi-hailing apps. Women e-drivers also say that flexible hours, guaranteed payment and the ability to screen passengers are making the work attractive.

So far only three per cent of the city’s e-taxis are driven by women but one of the city’s app-driven taxi services says that it has seen an increase from 27 drivers in 2016 to 380 now.

Women passengers also often prefer to have a woman driver. Safaricom's Little Cab service, a serious rival to Uber, introduced its Lady Bug service in 2016 with taxis driven by women for women only. All the Lady Bug cars are supplied with WiFi and with a Lipa Na Mpesa mobile payment service.

Taxi services in general are benefiting from bad public transport in the city. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 taxis in Nairobi.