App-based delivery platforms including Uber, Bolt, Glovo and Little will be required to record and verify the contents of every parcel they handle from next month, with those records accessible to police, the taxman and the communications regulator on request.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has published new licensing conditions compelling online courier platforms to capture details of parcel contents along with sender and recipient information.
Under the rules, this data must be kept on file and handed over to the CA itself, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), or the police whenever requested, as part of a broader push to clamp down on the movement of illegal goods such as drugs and firearms through delivery apps.
The requirements, which take effect on September 20, form part of a newly created licensing category for what the CA is calling a “courier hailing service provider,” a designation that separates digital delivery platforms from traditional courier operators for the first time.
The CA’s notice sets out the obligation in direct terms: “The licensee shall establish and maintain mechanisms to capture and verify the details of the sender and recipient of a postal article, allow senders to declare the contents of a postal article… allow courier agents or requesting licensees to verify the contents of a postal article.” It further requires that “the licensee shall maintain records of all postal articles that it has handled and make such records available to the Authority or any competent government agency upon request.”
Riders will not be permitted to simply open packages at will. Under the new framework, they are expected to screen and verify contents without physically opening them, unless there is genuine suspicion that a parcel contains prohibited goods, or unless a KRA official or other revenue authority specifically orders it opened.
Riders also retain the right to refuse a parcel altogether if it appears unsafe or suspicious, return it to the sender, and report the matter to police. The approach mirrors, on a smaller scale, practices used internationally by logistics giants such as DHL and FedEx, which routinely screen packages through X-ray machines to detect weapons, explosives and other prohibited items.
The move comes as digital courier platforms increasingly compete for a slice of Kenya’s fast-growing parcel delivery market, driven by the continued shift of commerce from physical shops to online transactions. Uber, alongside rivals Bolt and Little, has expanded well beyond its original taxi-hailing business into parcel delivery in recent years, joining Glovo, which has specialised in the space for longer.
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Uber has gone a step further, separately applying to the CA for a national courier operator licence that would let it collect, transport and deliver parcels more broadly across the country, a move that would place it in direct competition with the state-owned Postal Corporation of Kenya, which has struggled to stay competitive amid growing digital disruption.
Until now, Kenyan law had no clear framework defining the legal responsibilities of on-demand delivery apps. Individual platforms had instead relied on their own internal rules: Uber and Glovo currently prohibit the delivery of weapons and ammunition, stolen goods, cannabis, cash and pharmaceutical drugs, unless the pickup or drop-off point is a licensed pharmacy or hospital, while Bolt separately bars the delivery of any item valued above Sh15,000.
In practice, however, riders have often treated parcels much like any other passenger booking, with little real awareness of what they are actually carrying. The new rules aim to close that gap, requiring, among other things, that “the licensee shall prominently display at all its outlets and on its platform, a schedule of prohibited articles.”
Beyond the contents-verification requirement, the new licensing terms also introduce firmer consumer protection rules. Courier firms will be required to compensate customers for parcels that are lost, delayed or damaged, provided a complaint is filed within 90 days.
That compensation obligation falls away, however, if the parcel itself was prohibited under the law, its contents were not declared at the point of acceptance, the recipient has already acknowledged receiving the goods, or either the sender or recipient is found to have made a false declaration.
Customers will also gain the ability to verify the identity of the rider handling their delivery, while platforms will be required to provide real-time tracking of a parcel’s movement right through to final delivery.
The financial terms of the new licence are also set out in the CA’s conditions. Courier platforms will pay a Sh5,000 application fee, followed by an initial licensing fee of Sh100,000.
On an ongoing basis, they will be liable for an annual operating fee equivalent to either Sh100,000 or 0.4 per cent of their gross annual turnover, whichever amount is higher, in addition to a universal service levy set at 0.5 per cent of gross annual turnover.
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