In 2020, a three-day suspension of public transport in Kenya cleared the air so much that Mt. Kenya became visible from Nairobi, sparking the idea for BasiGo. Today the company leases more than 100 electric buses to operators in Kenya and Rwanda, and those buses have carried 15 million passengers.
BasiGo doesn't manufacture its own buses; it imports them from China and assembles them in Kenya. Its innovation is a full service package: leasing, maintenance, insurance, and a charging network. Operators pay a small deposit and a daily pay-as-you-drive fee, which lowers the barrier of high upfront cost. The company says operators earn a 5–10 times higher return on investment compared with diesel buses.
The environmental and health benefits are significant. Kenya's grid is about 90% renewable, so each electric bus avoids roughly 50 tons of CO2 per year. With around 20,000 diesel buses in Nairobi alone, widespread electrification could dramatically cut emissions and reduce particulate matter, potentially lowering childhood asthma cases.
Challenges remain, including training local staff, upgrading infrastructure, and securing land for charging depots. Still, BasiGo has a reservation list of 1,200 customers and is now targeting trucks as the next big polluters on the road.