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Only two in 100 Kenyans drive to work, 73pc walk
Kenyans walk to their workplaces along the Thika highway near Muthaiga on March 31, 2020. Majority of Kenyan workers have to walk to work or use public transport or boda bodas to get to their jobs.
Only two in 100 Kenyans drive to work, with the majority of the population walking or using matatus, a new report has shown.
The use of private cars is higher in urban areas, where about six percent of workers use them to get to work, compared to rural areas, where only 1.4 percent of the working folks use private cars, the report said.
“Private cars were more commonly used in urban areas at six percent and 1.4 percent in rural areas,” the Kenya Housing Survey notes.
The survey shows that out of the 21 million Kenyans in active labour force as of 2023, only two percent used private cars to work.
Kenyans in the labour force generally mean everyone doing some kind of work, whether employed or subsistence, such as going to work on your farm or other forms. At least 3.1 million of the 21 million Kenyans were wage employees, while 16.7 million worked in the informal sector, according to the Economic Survey 2024.
However, the majority of Kenyan workers, the report found, have to walk to work or use public transport or boda bodas to get to their jobs.
“Walking was the predominant mode of transport to work, with 72.7 percent of Kenyans walking to work, with rural areas recording the highest percentage (82.5 percent) compared to urban areas (53.4 percent),” the report notes.
The large number of Kenyans who have to walk to work on a daily basis means that they either they live within walking distance of their workplaces or cannot afford to pay for transport and therefore have to walk every day.
The report, however, did not provide a breakdown of the reasons for the different modes of transport that Kenyans use to work.
It reveals that overall, 12.2 percent of Kenyans use public transport to get to work, while 10.6 percent use boda bodas.
“Public transport (matatu/PSV/bus) was more common in urban areas (26.7 percent) compared to rural areas (4.9 percent). The use of boda bodas (bicycles and motorbikes) was popular in both rural and urban areas at 10.4 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively,” the report states.
Fewer Kenyans (0.7 percent) used tuktuks as a mode of transport to work, 0.2 percent used taxis and 0.1 percent water vessels or school buses, the report said.