Kenya Proposes New Competition Rules for Uber, Bolt and Digital Platforms

Kenya’s Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2026 could reshape how some of the country’s largest digital platforms are regulated, moving competition enforcement beyond traditional measures of market dominance and into areas such as data control, platform dependence and algorithm-driven business practices.

The Bill, now before Parliament, proposes new legal tests that would allow the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to intervene where digital platforms exercise substantial influence over businesses that rely on them, even if those companies do not hold a dominant market share. While ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Bolt illustrate how the proposals could work in practice, the reforms extend much further, laying the foundation for oversight across Kenya’s wider digital economy.

Kenya’s Competition Act has traditionally focused on firms that hold a dominant market position. The proposed amendments recognise that digital markets operate differently.

Online platforms often derive influence from network effects, access to large volumes of user data, integrated digital ecosystems and the ability to act as intermediaries between businesses and consumers. Those characteristics can give platforms significant leverage without meeting conventional definitions of market dominance.

In its submission to the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee, the Competition Authority argues that these changes have exposed gaps in Kenya’s competition framework.

According to CAK Director-General David Kemei, the growth of digital platforms has created concerns around concentrated market power, unfair trading practices, economic dependence, exclusionary conduct and barriers to market entry. The authority believes existing legislation does not adequately address those challenges because it was designed before digital marketplaces became central to commerce.

The amendments seek to provide regulators with tools that reflect how competition now operates in platform-driven markets.

One of the Bill’s most significant proposals is the introduction of the concept of a strategic market position.

Rather than examining market share alone, the Competition Authority would assess whether a business can influence prices, quality, service, innovation or output independently of competitors, suppliers, users or consumers.

To make that determination, the authority would consider factors such as the platform’s presence across multiple digital markets, its control of commercially valuable data, and the network effects that reinforce platform growth. Additionally, it would evaluate switching costs faced by users and business partners, barriers preventing new entrants, overall financial strength, and the extent to which businesses and consumers depend on the platform.

The proposal reflects a broader recognition that influence in digital markets is often built on ecosystems rather than market share alone.

For example, a platform that connects millions of consumers with merchants, drivers or delivery partners may become difficult to avoid even where competing services remain available.

The Bill also introduces a second concept with potentially wide-reaching implications: superior bargaining position.

Unlike traditional competition law, which generally focuses on monopolies or dominant firms, this provision addresses commercial relationships where one business possesses overwhelming negotiating leverage because another has few practical alternatives.

Under the proposed amendments, a company may hold a superior bargaining position if it creates an imbalance in commercial rights and obligations while its trading partner cannot find a viable substitute in the market.

That distinction is particularly relevant for digital platforms.

Many merchants, drivers, developers and service providers depend on large online marketplaces to reach customers. Even where competing platforms exist, leaving one ecosystem may result in a substantial loss of business.

The amendments would therefore allow regulators to examine commercial dependence alongside market concentration.

Although the legislation applies across the digital economy, ride-hailing platforms provide one of the clearest examples of the issues the Competition Authority hopes to address.

Drivers have long argued that platform algorithms determine fares and commissions in ways that favour technology companies while leaving transport providers with shrinking earnings. Price competition between Uber, Bolt, Little and Faras has also contributed to lower fares, prompting some drivers to negotiate prices directly with passengers or decline trips they consider uneconomical.

The proposed reforms do not set fare levels or require platforms to increase driver compensation.

Instead, they establish a legal framework that allows regulators to assess whether commercial terms, pricing practices or bargaining relationships amount to an abuse of strategic market position or superior bargaining position.

The Competition Bill also arrives as the Ministry of Roads and Transport develops a minimum compensation framework for ride-hailing drivers. While those transport proposals focus on pricing and driver earnings, the Competition Authority is targeting the underlying commercial dynamics between digital platforms and the businesses that depend on them.

Viewed together, the measures suggest policymakers are approaching platform regulation through several complementary frameworks rather than relying on a single intervention.

Ride-hailing may dominate public discussion, but the proposals have implications across Kenya’s digital economy.

The Competition Authority would also examine whether a company functions as a digital gatekeeper by considering questions such as whether the platform controls access between businesses and consumers, and whether competitors require access to the platform to compete effectively. Additionally, it would evaluate whether the company determines the rules governing its digital ecosystem, and whether network effects have strengthened the platform’s position to the point where competition becomes difficult.

Those tests could eventually apply to a broad range of platform businesses, including digital marketplaces, food delivery services, app stores, online advertising platforms and other businesses that coordinate large digital ecosystems.

Data also assumes a more prominent role under the proposed law. Control of user data becomes one of the factors regulators may consider when assessing market influence, reflecting the importance of data as a competitive asset in digital markets.

The amendments would also strengthen the Competition Authority’s enforcement powers.

A person found to have abused a strategic market position or superior bargaining position could face a fine of up to KSh10 million, imprisonment for up to five years, or both.

Beyond penalties, the Bill would allow the Competition Authority to develop sector-specific codes of practice where abuse of strategic market position or superior bargaining position is likely to occur.

Once issued, those codes would become binding on businesses operating within affected sectors, providing guidance on commercial relationships, pricing practices, commissions and other areas that frequently generate disputes.

The authority argues that this approach offers greater flexibility than relying solely on legislative amendments whenever digital business models evolve.

The Competition Bill does not stand alone.

Recent government initiatives suggest Kenya is developing a broader regulatory framework for platform businesses.

Earlier this month, the Communications Authority introduced a dedicated Courier Hailing Service Provider licence for app-based delivery platforms, recognising digital logistics as a distinct segment of the courier market rather than treating platform operators as conventional courier companies.

Separately, the Ministry of Roads and Transport is consulting on proposals to introduce minimum driver compensation and a national pricing framework for ride-hailing services.

Each initiative addresses a different aspect of the platform economy.

The Communications Authority focuses on licensing and sector oversight.

The Transport Ministry is examining pricing and driver welfare.

The Competition Authority is concentrating on bargaining power, market structure and digital competition.

Taken together, the reforms illustrate a coordinated effort to update regulation for businesses that operate across transport, logistics and digital commerce through interconnected technology platforms.

Kenya’s proposals also reflect developments in other jurisdictions.

The European Union has adopted rules aimed at regulating large digital gatekeepers, while competition authorities have pursued cases involving Google, Apple and Meta over practices such as self-preferencing, restrictions on competition and control of digital ecosystems.

Although Kenya’s framework is tailored to local market conditions, the underlying principles are similar. Regulators are placing greater emphasis on platform dependence, ecosystem control and data-driven market power alongside traditional measures of competition.

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2026 remains under parliamentary consideration.

If enacted, it would mark one of the most significant updates to Kenya’s competition framework since digital platforms became central to the country’s economy.

For companies operating online, the proposals represent more than tighter oversight of ride-hailing.

They introduce a broader legal framework through which regulators could examine how digital platforms use data, algorithms, commercial relationships and ecosystem control to shape competition.

As Kenya’s digital economy continues to expand, the Bill would give competition authorities new tools to assess whether platform influence extends beyond healthy competition into conduct that restricts choice or creates unfair commercial relationships for the businesses that depend on those platforms.

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