Bolt—Bolt won Kenya High Court case striking down 18% ride-hailing commission cap and mandatory driver/passenger data retention rule
Bolt Operations OU petitioned Kenya's High Court challenging the 2022 Transport Network Companies regulations. On September 1, 2026, Justice Florence Muigai Aburili ruled the 18% commission-cap and anti-circumvention provisions unconstitutional and invalid for lack of statutory price-setting authority and a regulatory impact assessment, suspending the declaration for 12 months while government redraws the rules. The same judgment struck down a separate rule requiring platforms to retain three years of detailed passenger and driver data and surrender it to the National Transport and Safety Authority on demand, finding it breached the constitutional right to privacy.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gig Worker Rights | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.255 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.68)
Evidence (2 signals)
Kenyan press: High Court blocks enforcement of 18% ride-hailing commission cap after Bolt petition
Kenyan outlets reported the High Court's September 2026 ruling in Bolt's favor, including the 12-month suspension of the commission-cap rule and the parallel finding that mandatory driver/passenger data retention breached privacy rights under the Data Protection Act, 2019.
Kenya High Court judgment: Bolt Operations OU v Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport & 3 others [2026] KEHC 13383
The published High Court judgment records Justice Florence Muigai Aburili ruling Regulations 9(1)(g), 9(3) and 17 of the 2022 Transport Network Companies rules unconstitutional, granting Bolt's petition E101 of 2025 and suspending the invalidity declaration for 12 months.