A typical Monday in Nairobi: matatus jostle each other like sumo wrestlers, boda-bodas squeeze into every possible gap, and a cloud of smog accompanies commuters like chai accompanies mandazi.
Traffic here is not an “urban nuisance”: it is a compulsory university course. Every day, the same lesson, with the same conclusion: Kenya still desperately depends on gasoline and diesel.
In Beijing, on the other hand, the scene is surreal. Buses that seem to fly instead of trudge along, couriers who deliver packages silently like Zen monks on electric bikes, taxis that have stopped coughing smoke to become batteries on wheels. In just over ten years, China has done what even Netflix doesn't dare to show in a series in Kenya: reinvent urban transport.
And to think that until yesterday, in China, people went out wearing masks not because they were afraid of viruses but because they were afraid of their lungs. The smog was so thick that you didn't even need an anti-theft device: you just had to make sure you couldn't see your parked car. Then the government came up with a plan that was as simple as it was totalitarian: do you want to continue breathing? Fine, change your vehicle. Can't do it? We'll take care of it, and we'll even put an electric socket under your house. The result: in 2024, China had 70% of the world's charging stations.
In Kenya, on the other hand, electric mobility is still more of a talk show than a reality. There are no charging stations, no funds, no decisions. But the boda-bodas remain: 1.5 million motorcyclists who today contribute generously to urban pollution and noise. Imagine them electric: no smoke, no roar, just the gentle hum of batteries. It would be a relief for cities and for drivers' pockets, who would spend less on gasoline.
That's why the Asian giant sees it as a business opportunity to relieve Nairobi of the burden of urban toxicity and is proposing its system, selling and lending with interest, as always, but at least this time for a good cause.
The problem so far has been politics. In China, they have imposed, subsidized, punished, and rewarded. In Kenya, they discuss, write documents, organize conferences, and meanwhile, gasoline prices rise. Subsidies for importers and assemblers exist, but for the average citizen, electric cars remain as expensive as a one-way ticket to Mars.
Yet Kenya does have one trump card: its electricity is already largely clean, thanks to geothermal, wind, and hydroelectric power. If only the grid were reliable—and not a switch that trips as soon as someone turns on an iron—electric boda-bodas could truly become a global model.
Today, Nairobi is one of the most polluted cities on the continent. Half of its emissions come from traffic, fuel prices bite like mosquitoes in high season, and the whole world is calling for a reduction in fossil fuels. China has shown that change is possible. But for Kenya, it is not enough to announce the revolution: it needs to turn it into routine and...trust the devouring Dragon.
In China, there are now people who plan their supermarket shopping based on their car's battery charge. This is the real challenge for Nairobi: not putting Teslas on billboards, but making sure that people can go to the market without wondering if the next blackout will leave them stranded.
Because electric mobility here will not be a dream until it becomes boring.