" Bolt ordered to pay driver Ksh1M for wrongful dismissal" 31 October 2023

The Transport Licensing Appeals Board (TLAB) has ruled that the driver Kennedy Wainaina Mbugua be immediately compensated the amount for the 168 days he has been out of work from May 15 to October 31, 2023.

The compensation is at the rate of Ksh6,000 per day. Mbugua is a Transport Network Driver, duly registered in Kenya under the National Transport and Safety Authority (Transport Network Companies, Owners, Drivers and Passengers) Regulations 2022, according to TLAB, and has been offering transport network services through the platform of the Bolt.

In a Judgement rendered by chairperson TLAB Adrian Kamotho concurred with the Mbugua argument that his data privacy on Bolt’s platform and the decision of NTSA to license Bolt as a transport network company, having not met and or breached the requirements set out in the NTSA regulations. "We find that the appellant (Mbugua) has adequately discharged his burden to the requisite legal threshold. It is our considered view that Bolt Operations has failed to comply and or prove compliance with the law including various requirements of the National Transport and Safety Authority (Transport Network Companies, Owners, Drivers and Passengers) Regulations, 2022," Kamotho-led tribunal ruled.

The Tribunal directed Bolt to, within 48 hours, file with the Tribunal a compliance matrix in the terms of Regulation 7 of the NTSA Regulations which shall be duly verified by NTSA.Bolt Operations was also ordered to immediately restore the status prevailing as of May 31, 2023, with regard to Mbugua’s rights to its transport network platform; immediately refund him the full amount cashed out from his transport network platform on May 17, 2023; and also compensate him Ksh1.008 million.