BasiGo and Rubis Energy Kenya have partnered to expand fast-charging infrastructure along Kenya’s key transport corridors.
The first station is now operational at the Rubis service station in Sabaki, Athi River, and three additional sites in Meru, Nanyuki, and Nyeri scheduled to open later this month.
The partnership deploys high-power DC fast chargers open to the public, serving electric buses, vans, trucks, passenger vehicles, and other compatible EVs.
This marks a decisive push by Kenya’s leading electric bus operator beyond Nairobi’s boundaries and into the inter-city routes that will define whether electric mobility in Kenya scales or stalls.
What the RUBiS BasiGo EV Charging Kenya Partnership Actually Delivers
The RUBiS BasiGo EV charging Kenya partnership is structured around a practical model.
BasiGo leases space at Rubis service stations to install and operate the charging facilities, combining BasiGo’s EV infrastructure expertise with Rubis Energy Kenya’s network of more than 300 stations across the country and its presence across East and Southern Africa.
The Sabaki station is equipped with both CCS2 and GB/T DC 100kW fast chargers, capable of charging a typical passenger vehicle in under one hour, with compatibility extending across a wide range of commercial electric vehicles.
All sites under the partnership use similar technology and charge at an indicative rate of KES 48 per kilowatt-hour.
That pricing transparency, set before the network is complete, is a signal that the partnership is designed for commercial EV operators making fleet decisions, not just early adopters willing to pay uncertain costs.
The Kenya EV Charging Corridor Taking Shape
The Kenya EV charging corridor emerging from the Rubis-BasiGo partnership covers Sabaki (Athi River), Meru, Nanyuki, and Nyeri: four locations that form an arc around Nairobi’s key inter-city departure points toward the coast, the central highlands, and the northern routes.
BasiGo currently operates more than 10 charging stations in Nairobi, primarily serving its electric bus fleet.
The Rubis partnership stations are designed differently: smaller inter-city charging depots for public service vehicles and motorists travelling outside the capital who need a reliable charge point on routes where the national grid is accessible but EV infrastructure has not previously existed.
Moses Nderitu, Managing Director of BasiGo Kenya, was direct about the strategic logic: the question is no longer whether operators and the public want to go electric, but whether the infrastructure is in place to support them at scale.
Every charging station deployed along key transport corridors strengthens the business case for electric mobility and makes intercity electric transport more practical, reliable, and commercially viable.
From Fuel Distributor to Energy Partner: RUBiS’s Strategic Shift
Olivier Sabrie, CEO of Rubis Energy East and Southern Africa, framed the partnership in terms that go beyond a single market.
She noted that Kenya is quickly becoming a proving ground for what is possible across Rubis’s footprint, and the deal shows how Rubis is evolving from fuel distributor to full energy partner.
That framing is significant for understanding what the BasiGo electric bus charging Kenya partnership means for Rubis.
For a fuel retailer with more than 300 stations in Kenya alone, the addition of EV charging at selected sites is not a departure from the core business.
It is a hedge against the long-term decline of petrol demand and a direct capture of the fuelling relationship with EV fleets before competitors or standalone charging networks establish themselves at those locations.
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Rubis is not subsidising EV infrastructure for altruistic reasons.
It is positioning its retail network as the charging infrastructure backbone for Kenya’s electric mobility transition before that transition reaches the scale at which the commercial returns become obvious.
BasiGo’s Broader Ambition and the Road to 1,000 Buses
The BasiGo electric bus charging Kenya expansion sits within a larger programme that the company has been executing since its 2021 launch.
BasiGo has more than 100 electric buses on the road and holds over 1,000 reservations from bus operators, with a target of deploying 1,000 electric buses on Kenyan roads by the end of 2027.
The company also launched the KL-9 electric bus in September 2025, designed with King Long and assembled by Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers, with plans to produce over 20 units per month by 2026.
The inter-city expansion enabled by the Rubis partnership is the infrastructure precondition for that fleet target to be realistic.
Urban Nairobi routes have proven the operational model.
Inter-city routes carry Kenya’s heaviest passenger volumes, including the Nairobi to Mombasa, Nairobi to Kisumu, and Nairobi to Nakuru corridors.
Electric buses that can only operate within range of Nairobi’s charging depots cannot serve those routes. Charging stations in Meru, Nanyuki, and Nyeri begin to change that constraint.
Electric Vehicle Charging in Kenya in 2026 and the Infrastructure Gap
Electric vehicle charging in Kenya in 2026 remains concentrated in Nairobi, where BasiGo, Vivo Energy, and others have built the urban charging density that makes EV bus operations viable in the capital.
TotalEnergies Kenya has separately partnered with electric motorcycle companies Ampersand, Roam, and Arc Ride to offer battery-swapping through its retail network, adding another dimension to the fuel retailer-as-EV-infrastructure model.
The government has disclosed plans to invest KES 6.12 billion to establish 10,000 EV charging stations across highways nationwide by 2030, but specific timelines and detailed plans remain to be published.
In that policy gap, private sector partnerships like the Rubis-BasiGo arrangement are building the corridor infrastructure that government investment has not yet delivered.
Whether the Sabaki-Meru-Nanyuki-Nyeri network is Kenya’s electric mobility tipping point or one building block among many will depend on how quickly the model replicates to other corridors.
The structure is in place. The technology is deployed. The pricing is set.
The question Nderitu framed, whether the infrastructure can support EV adoption at scale, is now being answered one station at a time.
