Four men torched an Uber car in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi Wednesday, the same day the ride-hailing service launched in the country’s second largest city of Mombasa, police said.
Nairobi Police chief Japheth Koome told The Associated Press a man hired the Uber car to take him to the outskirts of the capital and led the driver to a dark alley.
The driver told police he saw four men approach the car and managed to escape when they tried to restrain him, Koome said, adding that the car was completely burned.
In a statement from Uber’s office in South Africa, the company said it is in “open dialogue” with police regarding the incident, Reuters reports.
In late February an Uber car was burned in Kenya by unknown assailants, according to The Associated Press. Taxi operators last month asked the government to stop the operations of Uber, which has become popular because of its cheaper fares.
The government responded by saying it was drafting new laws on the regulations of online taxi operators, Reuters reports.
The company now operates in nine sub-Saharan African cities, in countries such as South Africa and Nigeria.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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