Female-only car service helps women feel safe and secure
87 views · Published 28 October 2018 · 6:50 · Indexed 9 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(22 Oct 2018) LEADIN: Women are the main beneficiaries of a new taxi app that's just been launched in Kenya. The An-Nisa app is exclusively for women and the company only recruits female drivers to ensure its female-only customers feel safe and comfortable. STORYLINE: Nairobi is renowned for its busy streets and traffic jams. With more than three million people living in the city, public transport is stretched. Taxis are a staple of this bustling city - but not everyone feels comfortable hailing one. Kenya has recently seen a rise in the number of taxi-hailing apps that value security, comfort and privacy of their clients. They're proving particularly popular with female clients, with more apps putting women at the centre of their app design. 'An-Nisa Taxi' is one such app developed with women in mind. Even the app's name, 'An-Nisa' means women in Arabic. Diram Bora has just used An-Nisa to book a taxi. The app also aims to empower women taxi drivers, like Susan Cherono. She's on her way to pick up Bora. The 21-year-old uses An-Nisa a lot because it makes her feel more comfortable as a Muslim woman travelling on her own. "So I have requested for the 'An-Nisa Taxi' and the driver has come to pick me up," Bora explains. "The reason as to why I chose An-Nisa Taxi is because it offers three things. It offers security, comfortability and privacy." "For the security part, you see when a male driver is driving you, you have fear that anything might happen along the way or even the driver will harass you. But when the female driver is driving you, you feel more secure." "And also about the comfortability and privacy, you see sometimes as Muslim women, we don't even want to be seen by the male drivers, seeing our faces so when the female drivers driving us we feel more comfortable. Sometime you can remove the scarf in the car you know, so you will comfortable." The founder of the app, Mehnaz Sarwar, says An-Nisa all about empowerment. "We have a large amount of women in the taxi business but with no specific app for them and no voice for that population." "So we wanted to give an app which gives more of a voice, more of an empowerment working with them and making sure that they get good returns. This are single mothers, mothers who are working hard. So we really, really wanted it to be about women empowerment." A growing number of women are getting behind the wheel and becoming taxi drivers. Compared to other taxi-hailing application giants like Uber, 'An-Nisa Taxi' charges lower fees to drivers. "It's better than the other apps because their commission is less, it's 10 percent. While other apps are taking 15 percent and 25 percent, which we feel is too high considering the cost of living and we have loans to pay, car loans, we have rent and some of us are employed and they have to give their employer 2000 (Kenyan shillings) ($20) per day, so when they take such a big chunk, at the end of the day the driver goes home with less money, so we are having a better offer, a better deal where the commission is only 10 percent, what they are taking from what we earn," says Cherono who has been a driver for 18 months. The app has registered 60 drivers so far - 20 of them are already on the road while 40 others are still being vetted, according to Sarwar. "So we are hoping by the end of the week, we just started this on Sunday, so we are hoping that by the end of the week we will have more than 100 drivers because the response has been amazing. I mean people who are not already drivers are already wanting to join." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d82b1bbe4574c31f68ec85f39b2dd41d
