President William Ruto, on Thursday, June 1, announced the development of a new transport system to lower the cost of transportation.
In his Madaraka Day speech at Moi Stadium Embu, Ruto revealed that the government was at an advanced stage of launching an electric vehicle public transport system.
Operators will thus adopt electric buses to address the high fuel cost globally.
"As international petroleum prices continue to rise beyond reach, the cost of fuel locally rises steeply. As a component of household budgets, transport is affecting the cost of living," Ruto stated.
"We have to liberate Kenyans from reliance on transport that depends on petroleum. For this reason, we are rolling out an electric vehicle public transport system which will bring down the cost of transport significantly," he added.
To achieve his agenda, Ruto implored public service operators to adopt the new technology to save their ventures from the high operations costs caused by global fuel uncertainties.
The new plan is also set to align with his economic transformation agenda and climate action, which he embraced after ascending to power. In that line, the electric vehicle public transport system is also expected to reduce emissions.
Embassava, Metro Trans, Super Metro and Citi Hoppa are the matatu operators that acquired electric bus fleets.
They launched the buses to ply different routes saving commuters from high fares and operations costs.
Further, Ruto added that boda boda operators serving the public service vehicle sector would be required to acquire electric bikes. He insisted that the new move was key to also revitalising the sector.
"With this intervention, owning and operating a boda boda will become affordable, secure and profitable," Ruto announced.
The announcement came after some matatu operators hiked fare prices due to a surge in fuel prices announced by the Energy and Petroleum Authority of Kenya.
Nairobi, petrol prices rose to Ksh182.70, Diesel increased to Ksh168.40, and Kerosene rose to Ksh161.13.
In Mombasa, Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene rose to Ksh179.86, Ksh165.57 and Ksh158.30, respectively, in May.
