Kenya's Uber drivers circulated union fare cards pricing rides 50% above the app

In May 2024 the Organization of Online Drivers (OOD), a registered Kenyan union with about 15,000 members, began circulating its own suggested fare chart with rates at least 50% above Uber's official fares. Drivers laminated the cards and placed them behind the driver's seat and on the dashboard. A Nairobi driver whom Rest of World calls only Charles, fearing Uber retribution, now charges by the union's chart, prioritizes riders paying cash or via M-Pesa, and actively turns down customers who want to pay in the Uber app.

The trigger was fuel. Kenya removed its petrol subsidy in September 2022 and prices hit record highs; even after the subsidy returned a year later, costs remained high. When Uber entered Kenya in January 2015 a litre of petrol cost 94.06 shillings (73 US cents); by August 2024 it cost roughly twice as much, and drivers say app fares had not kept up. Talks went nowhere — OOD chairperson Justin Nyaga: 'We tried to talk to Uber about adjusting the prices, but it was in vain, so we decided to take matters into our own hands to provoke them into discussing our terms and conditions.'

Standardization is what makes the card work. Haggling was never new for Kenyan drivers, but Charles says the rate card 'became a unifying factor': one identical tariff in cars across Nairobi turned a private ask into a citywide norm, and initial passenger resistance faded as the cards became a common sight. Uber called charging above the app against its guidelines and said it was reviewing reported incidents; it also said it last raised fares on August 19 after reviewing market conditions and driver roundtable feedback.

Don't quit the app and don't haggle one ride at a time: put one identical laminated union rate card in every car, turning private demands into a visible citywide tariff.

Fuel roughly doubled in price since Uber's 2015 entry while app fares lagged; drivers had only won a commission cut from 25% to 18% in 2022 through protests

Leaving the platform would surrender its demand, so the card keeps Uber's riders while moving the price off the app

One identical printed card signals a rule shared by thousands of drivers, not one driver's greed, so passengers learned to accept it

Refusing in-app payment sidesteps the app's official fare — the very number the union card prices 50% above

A workforce priced by a platform can reprice collectively with a cheap, standardized, visible artifact: one identical card in thousands of cars turns private defiance into a shared norm.

Passengers are frustrated: Nairobi businessman Duncan Ndung'u spends minutes negotiating before each ride and re-requests several times to find a driver at app rates; he says his Uber rating has fallen since he refused to pay above the app. Uber's head of East and South Africa, Imran Manji, said requesting payments above the app's estimates violates guidelines and reported incidents are under review. In Mombasa, unions that failed to move Uber steered drivers to rivals like Yego and Little Cab — higher fares, lower commissions; 600 drivers reportedly signed with Yego in June 2023.