President Ruto demonstrated his support for Kenya’s electric mobility sector by using an all-electric fleet for his motorcade during Africa Climate Week and the Africa Climate Summit. His security team traded in their internal combustion engine motorcycles for electric ones from local EV firms such as Roam, Ampersand, Spiro and KiriEVs.

The highlight of the event was watching President Ruto drive himself from the State House to the summit venue, KICC. The president drove a bright yellow Autopax Air EV Yetu which will soon be built in Thika, Kenya. Yetu is Swahili for “ours,” hence the car is known as “Our Air EV.”

In Kenya, the Autopax Air EV Yetu will be available in two configurations. The first is the regular range model, which has a 17.3 kWh battery and a reported range of 200 km (124 miles), and the second is the extended range variant, which has a 26.7 kWh battery and a range of up to 300 km (186 miles).

The summit follows the announcement of a groundbreaking agreement between Kenya and Spiro, Africa’s premier electric motorbike maker and clean energy provider, the firm will deploy electric bodas throughout Kenya. Since its inception just over a year ago, the company has successfully introduced almost 10,000 electric motorcycles in nations such as Benin, Togo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

As a part of this agreement, Spiro is set to introduce an additional 3,000 battery charging and swapping stations, considerably improving the country’s EV infrastructure. Spiro currently operates 350 battery switching and charging stations across Africa.

The EV manufacturer is also setting up a local assembly plant in Kenya, which will raise the national manufacturing contribution to GDP from 7.2 per cent in 2021 to 15 per cent by 2027 according to Moses Kuria CS Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry (MITI)