A young Kenyan innovator, Morris Mbetsa, has made headlines by inventing Africa’s first passenger drone.

According to Mbetsa, the passenger drone will address the traffic menace in Nairobi by providing “flying taxis”. The egg-shaped drones, which are also pilot-less, promise a comfortable air travel of up to 30 minutes.

Morris Mbetsa’s and his team are planning to launch the Passenger drones in Kenya soon.

The brain child behind the ground breaking innovation says the drones will be app-based and a user will just request for one through their mobile phone and get to ride to their destination.

“Our plan is have high buildings as the pads and have charging stations all over,” Morris Mbetsa said.

This “flying taxis” will also have a ballistic parachute in case of an accident.

Morris Mbetsa passenger drone, which was  developed with the support of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko is set to be the first one of a kind in the Africa!

In 2016 Chinese company unveiled the world’s first commercially available passenger drone at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Last year, Dubai staged a test flight for what it said would soon be the world’s first drone taxi service under an ambitious plan by the United Arab Emirates city to lead the Arab world in innovation.

UBER AIR TAXIS

Early this year, Uber sought to get a licence to operate remote piloted aircraft (RPAs), popularly known as drones, for a pilot of flying taxi services as replicated in Dubai.
Red cross also sought the licence to operate drones to supply medical supplies in remote parts of the country.

According to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, by August 2016, at least 1,000 applications had been made in regards to the use of drones locally.

KENYA LEGALISES USE OF DRONES

Operating drones in Kenya was illegal until  March this year when the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) gazetted the proposed Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems 2017 thus rendering the use of drones in the country legal, amid tough regulations that sparked public uproar, terming the regulations as “prohibitive”.

The use of drones in Kenya is popular with video coverage of weddings and recently in political campaigns where politicians want to show their might in “pulling crowds”.