Photograph — mpasho.co.ke

On Tuesday, the 5th of July 2016, Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator, Safaricom, launched an indigenously developed ride-hailing app called Little Cab to compete with Uber.

Little Cab hopes to win customers over with their improved, inclusive and varied service strategy which includes, cheaper fares, free Wi-Fi for passengers, higher revenue shares for drivers, and a ‘female drivers only’ service option. The new e-cab hailing company said they already have 40 female drivers signed up to the exclusive ‘Lady Bug’ service, a cab service for women, driven by women.

Unlike Uber, Little Cab offers a variety of service categories; ‘Comfort’ and ‘Basic.’ While the former is a regular service like that offered by Uber, the latter is a low-cost option for older cars. Customers can also schedule trips with the ‘Ride Later’ option.

Little Cab taxis will also be issued a Lipa Na M-Pesa paybill, allowing customers to pay with mobile money. “We believe that Little Cab will provide better passenger experiences by connecting them with more reliable, cost effective options,” said Safaricom Chief Executive, Bob Collymore.

“At the end of the day competition is good,” Nate Anderson, the general manager of Uber Kenya, told Reuters.

Although Uber has said it welcomed the new competition, one wonders if a similar sentiment is, or will be shared by local taxi operators in Kenya, the ‘least Uber-receptive country in Africa.’

Local taxi operators in Kenya have called for a ban on the San Francisco based company on the grounds that Uber’s cheap pricing model amongst other things, is bad for their business.

In a bid to frustrate the online cab-hailing company out of business, and out of Kenya, local taxi operators have taken strike actions, engaged in a series of protest, and even resorted to physical attacks on Uber drivers and vandalism of Uber cabs.

Now, will this ongoing battle between local taxi drivers and Uber be extended to Little Cab, especially as the newly launched company has an even more appealing business model? Or will they be left to operate with ease since Safaricom is partly indigenous, and will run Little Cab with a Nairobi-based software developer, Craft Silicon.

Company officials say Little Cab is currently available only on Android and Windows phones for now, but will soon be made available on iOS platforms.

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