An Uber driver in Nairobi, Kenya, narrowly escaped harm, after a passenger he was transporting led him into a trap that saw his vehicle torched.
Kenyan police reported the incident happened on Wednesday when the passenger led the driver to a different place than where he had indicated he was going to.
The Uber driver landed up in a dark alley where four unknown men tried to accost him. The driver managed to escape and the car was set on fire thereafter.
The tension comes on the same day Uber launched in Abuja, Nigeria and Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya and the service’s second city of operation in the east African country.
Uber launched in Nairobi in June last year. Tensions between traditional taxi drivers and the service’s drivers have been boiling over in recent months.
In a similar incident last month, an Uber taxi was torched in Nairobi
Uber’s Sub-Saharan office based here in South Africa said it is in an open dialogue with Kenyan police regarding the matter.
