Why people with disabilities in Nairobi are looking beyond public transport to navigate busy city

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Caroline Mwikali lost her ability to walk at age 13 after an illness. She quickly learned how difficult it is to get around in Kenya’s busy capital, Nairobi.

Mwikali, who now works at a car financing company, said public transport is not designed to accommodate wheelchair users like her.

Nairobi's most popular modes of transport include motorbikes along with minivans and minibuses that are not fitted with ramps. They also are not designed to fit wheelchairs in their aisles, so users must be hoisted up the stairs and placed on regular seats while their wheelchairs are put with luggage.

“In most cases, the people manning the bus terminals have to lift you off the wheelchair to help you board the buses. This is not only uncomfortable but leaves you attracting unnecessary attention from the public,” Mwikali told The Associated Press.

She is among 2.2% of Kenya’s population, or about 900,000 people, who live with a disability. The most common type of disability is mobility-related at 42%.

One entrepreneur, Daniel Gatura, founded Ace Mobility in Nairobi in 2021. Its vehicles are modified with ramps and swivel seats to accommodate people with disabilities and anyone else who needs support commuting.

Gatura said he was inspired by a personal experience growing up.

“My father sustained a spinal cord injury in an accident that left him in a wheelchair when he was just 5 years old. I witnessed the challenges my father faced, including losing his job due to transportation issues,” Gatura said.

Users can book rides through the Ace Mobility app. Drivers are trained as caregivers, ensuring they understand how to provide respectful and appropriate assistance to passengers with disabilities.

Gatura said they have 5,000 users.

“We are changing the narrative around disability and reduced mobility. Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you cannot earn for yourself; it doesn’t mean you are a nobody in the society,” he said.

The transport is more expensive than public transport, charging the equivalent of $1 per kilometer (0.6 miles). The same amount can be used to pay for a 40-kilometer (24-mile) ride in public transport vehicles. But Gatura noted it delivers people directly to their homes.

“I find the charges quite fair considering the convenience that it offers. I get to travel comfortably and without necessarily moving from my chair. It also somehow preserves my dignity,” said Mwikali, who has used the service for four months after a referral from a former classmate.

But others like Cindy Cherotich can't afford the service. She must jostle for space on minibuses while on crutches.

“When I go to the bus station sometimes the public vehicles do not allow me to board," she said. “When they see my crutch and (see) somebody who is OK without crutches, they will let them in and I will be left.”

Lucy Nkatha, a disability advocate and coordinator of Kiengu Women Challenged to Challenge Group, an NGO, said she had never heard of Ace Mobility and called for marketing support for such companies.

“It should also be made affordable,” she said.

Sandra Nyawira, the disability inclusion adviser at United Disabled Persons of Kenya, noted that Kenya has a number of policies in place to address accommodations for people with disabilities, but implementation is rare. She called for more political will.

“It’s one thing to have a policy that speaks to your issues, but then it’s another to implement them,” she said.

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A man helps Carol Mwikali to get inside a public transport vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside an Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Carol Mwikali sits inside an Ace Mobility company vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Carol Mwikali rides around on a wheelchair in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Carol Mwikali, who uses a wheelchair, poses for a photo during an interview with Associated Press in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — A tent used for treatment of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo was set on fire for the second time this week, and 18 people suspected of infection escaped, a local hospital director said Saturday.

Unidentified people arrived at the clinic in Mongbwalu, a town at the center of the outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola, on Friday night and set fire to a tent set up by the Doctors Without Borders charity for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases, Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, told The Associated Press.

“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community," he said.

On Thursday, another treatment center in the town of Rwampara was burned down after family members were prohibited from retrieving the body of a local man.

The bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals. The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends.

A burial for Ebola patients in Bunia, another town within the outbreak zone, took place on Saturday under high security as tensions between health workers and the local community ran high.

Authorities in northeastern Congo on Friday banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The World Health Organization said that the outbreak now poses a “very high” risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.”

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo’s Ituri province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a response to the outbreak must include building trust with communities.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The agency said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus while carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.

This would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak from the previous first confirmed death in late April in the town of Bunia, the capital of Ituri.

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McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal.

A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Members of the Congo Scouts movement carry an Ebola awareness banner along a street during a public sensitisation campaign amid the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Sanitation workers from Bunia city government spray disinfectant in the central market area near a rubbish truck in Ituri province, as they continue efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)