Gov’t to splash out on new electric motorcycles for all chiefs, assistants

The government is phasing out over 13,000 fuel-injected motorcycles that chiefs and their assistants currently use with electric ones, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday.

Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo said the initiative places the local administrators at what he called the centre of climate action at the grassroots.

“Besides mobilising wananchi at the location and sub-location levels to grow trees, the use of electric motorcycles by the administrators boosts our climate action efforts at the grassroots,” he said.

Omollo launched the distribution of the first batch of 22 motorcycles at his Harambee House office in Nairobi. The 22 bikes will be used in Kajiado, Kiambu, Machakos and Nairobi counties.

More motorcycles will be distributed in the pilot project expected to take a month before a phased roll-out targeting all parts of Kenya, the PS said.

He said priority will be given to vast counties and remote areas facing security challenges for easy e-mobility of the officers.

The electric motorcycles PS Omollo flagged off on Monday are made by the electric mobility company Spiro.

A January 2024 press release on the company’s website indicates that a single bike costs over Ksh.190,000, meaning that to acquire new units for every chief and their assistants in all of Kenya’s 3,972 locations and 9,055 sub-locations, the government will splash out upwards of Ksh.2.4 billion.

According to Omollo, the government further plans to issue electric vehicles to police officers and other National Government Administration Officers (NGAOs), whom he said do not have enough vehicles.