The county government of Mombasa is contemplating greening the transport sector which has been identified as a major contributor to the county’s carbon footprint.

The transport sector, environment and industries have been identified as the top contributors to carbon emissions affecting the environment.

To achieve this, the county government of Mombasa on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Green Energy Consortium, Tuk Tuk Operators Network, Solar Tyme USA and Modern Auto Maintenance.

The MOU is on rolling out transition from fossil fuels to e-mobility.

Speaking during the signing of the MOU at the governor’s office, the county executive secretary for Water, Natural Resource and Climate Change Resilience Dr. Emily Achieng’ said that the governor Abdulswamad led administration was committed in greening the transport sector in Mombasa.

“As a county we have taken a big role in ensuring that we green our transport sector because it is one of the culprits in emissions. We are transiting to electric mobility and our partners are going to help us,” said Achieng.

She said through the MOU, they will start with two wheelers and then three wheelers as she alluded that Mombasa has been witnessing increased numbers of tuktuks and bodabodas using diesel and petrol that largely contribute to chroming.

The memorandum of understanding she said has a component of retrofitting the two and three-wheelers.

“As a county we are supporting through developing the necessary policies which need to be in place. We are also providing land where we can put up the swiping and charging station,” Achieng said.

She added that the county will give incentives to the industry which could be inform of reduction in the fee that an electric tuktuk or bike needs to pay.

The incentives she said might also come in swapping fees whereby discussions are going on about how much the county can cover on behalf of the e-mobility operators.

The she said will also provide land where the charging and swapping stations can be put up.

“We need to up-skill our young people to be able to fit in the green jobs space. We shall also get into partnership with our county TVETS to support training of mechanics that will be able to work in the electric vehicles,” she said.

The county executive added that the county intends to have swapping stations in all bodaboda stages saying this will increase job opportunities.

She said that discussions were ongoing with partners to have a battery manufacturing factory here in Mombasa.

This she said will have an economic impact on drivers because if you compare the charging fee to buying fuel, it is relatively low.

“We want to encourage the transition to electric mobility because it does not only reduce our carbon footprint, it also has a component on economic empowerment in the different value chains supported in the industry including training of students, where we will have our swapping stations and who will train them,” she said.

The managing partner at Solar Tyme USA Jonell Minefee said that they chose Mombasa to begin the pilot project before rolling it out to Kilifi and other counties in Kenya.

Solar Tyme USA is a financing partner is the MOU.

She said that reducing carbon footprint is a very expensive thing thus the need to have partners.

The six-sitter three-wheeler is fully electric and has a range of up to 100 kilometers per full charge which takes about 6 to 7 hours to be completed.

“This three-wheeler is fully electric and produces no noise. We want to make Mombasa a green city in Africa that is clean and without any noise,” said Molu.