On the morning of June 26, 2023, Kelvin Okiru received an email from the head of human resource. “I had just arrived at work. Immediately after rebooting my computer, I saw an email come through from the HR, asking me to drop whatever I was doing and immediately go to the staff meeting room,” says Okiru.  By the time he got to the meeting room, the head of human resource and the company’s counseling psychologist were already settled in.

“I was startled. I immediately got a sick feeling in the stomach that something was wrong,” he says. “‘What is this all about?’ I asked!” The HR heaved heavily. “I want you to understand that we did not want to do this. But it is all out of our control,” she said. She then told him that due to a downturn in business, a deteriorating currency and reduced income, the company had been forced to declare certain portfolios obsolete.  “They said my position had become redundant and that they had come to the tough conclusion that I needed to leave the company,” he says.

The 34-year-old recalls how everything went dark at that moment. “We all went quiet… so quiet that you could hear a pin drop; then my mind went into a gaze and I started feeling as if crickets were chirping away.

“We are very sorry; you will receive all your benefits, and if you need any counseling services to cope with this loss, our psychologist will be on standby to help you,” Okiru recalls the HR’s final words before she left the room. In the following days, Okiru received a lump sum payment of Sh. 1.3 million.

“I had a young family, a wife and two twin daughters who were aged 6 years. I had not been earning much, and most of my net income went into keeping my family comfortable. I had not invested or saved anything to speak of. How would I survive? How would I continue to pay Sh. 18,000 in rent, hire a nanny at Sh. 10,000 per month, do shopping and groceries at Sh. 15,000, send my mom help in the village and still afford kindergarten?” Okiru shares how his monthly budget fell into a crisis.

He quickly swung into action and rented a small stall downtown where he started a boutique and perfumes business. “I spent close to Sh. 300,000. Within five months, I shut down. The business was not breaking even. All I was doing was spending on rent and dead stock that no one appeared keen to buy. I decided to cut my losses and sold it off,” he says. From his startup investment of nearly Sh. 300,000, Okiru returned home with around Sh. 80,000 only.

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He remembers tethering on the verge of anxiety and depression. “I was afraid that I would soon run broke if I wasn’t careful enough. My money had already fallen to around Sh. 900,000 with nothing to show for it from the expenditures I had made at home and in my collapsed business,” he says. “I decided to consult my wife on what we could do with the remaining amount.”

Okiru says that his wife advised him to venture into the taxi hailing business. “She said the money was enough to acquire a decent vehicle that could qualify for the taxi hailing business,” he says. To his wife, this would be akin to killing two birds with one stone. “We would have a means of transportation that we could also use as a business.” In January 2024, Okiru bought a car at Sh. 850,000 and applied for a license with the taxi hailing app, Bolt.

“I submitted the requisite documentation which included sufficient driving experience, a clean traffic abstract, proof of insurance, a clean criminal record, a smartphone, a valid driver’s license, and an approval for the vehicle showing that it met all of Bolt’s specifications for age, condition and capacity,” he says.

After submitting his application for licensure, Okiru was taken through a background check to ensure that he was safe to run a public service business. He was then approved and onboarded in a process that also included scheduled training on safety, customer care, proper ethics, and business growth and opportunities. It is now nearly one year since he started operating his own taxi business under the Bolt taxi hailing profile.

“I have no regrets. I am content, I am my own boss, and I have seen my business grow,” he says, adding that he is able to meet his family budget without breaking sweat. “Overall, I am able to net more money than what I was making at my old job. I have come to learn and appreciate that when one door closes, one more shall open,” says Okiru.

From his Bolt earnings, Okiru says that he has managed to buy a second vehicle, a Daihatsu Mira, which his wife is now using to run her own taxi hailing venture under Bolt. “We have found what works for us; We have cars that we have turned from liabilities to income-generating assets,” he says.  When we ask where he sees himself in the next three years, Okiru says that he has hedged his plans on the ongoing expansion of Bolt. “I am contemplating on how I can venture outside Nairobi. If I could start a Bolt business in Kakamega for instance, it would be able to support my mother without having to go back into my pocket to send black tax home,” he says.

His ambition is not so farfetched. A spot check shows that Bolt has been expanding its reach in various major towns in the country. For instance, in February 2023, Bolt announced that it would invest over Sh. 13.5 billion in its Kenyan subsidiary. This investment would enable Bolt to expand its services to more towns across the country. At the time, Bolt was already operating in Kakamega, Nakuru, Naivasha, Eldoret, Kitale, Nyeri, Meru, Embu, Nanyuki, Karatina, Kilifi, and Malindi. Currently, Bolt is the largest ride-hailing service provider by customer-reach.

“Bolt shall double down on increasing its footprints across Kenya by expanding its services into more cities and town centres to provide access to affordable and quality services to customers whilst providing income opportunities for drivers across the country,” Bolt announced in a statement.