Kenya’s automotive industry has made significant strides, competing internationally due to innovations and technological advancements. A key chapter in its history is the development of the Nyayo Pioneer One. In the late 1980s, the late President Daniel Moi greenlit an ambitious project aimed at creating the nation’s first locally manufactured car.
Inspired by Singapore’s success in producing its first car, The Proton, in 1985, President Moi tasked the University of Nairobi’s Civil Engineering Department with developing a Kenyan-made vehicle. The goal was to position Kenya as a car manufacturer and reduce its dependence on European and Japanese imports.
President Moi set a crucial condition: all vehicle parts had to be locally sourced. The only exception was the carburetor, which had to be imported. The team sourced panels and the chassis locally, utilized wheels manufactured in Dandora, and assembled a 1.5-liter engine within the country.
“The car was the country’s status symbol of manufacturing. It was a challenge then for us to make a Kenyan car…it pooled various agencies to built a car…it took time to achieve this,”Eng. Sam Onyango, who was involved in the project, recalled in a past interview.
The saloon car featured a 1200 cc engine and reached a top speed of 120 km/h. Subsequently, four additional variants were developed, including a five-door sedan, a rally version, and a sports coupe.
Things were running smoothly, and the project began to look promising, with the car taking the shape of Japanese-like models—a direction the engineers decided to take to stay aligned with market standards.
Halfway through the project, developments hit a snag after the late Nicholas Biwott, who was the minister at the time, revealed that he was unhappy with the project since he had not been consulted. He argued that there was no economical variant for Kenyans and took over the project, instructing the team to also develop a pickup.
In 1991, President Moi unveiled the vehicle at a crowded Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi. It was a magnificent sight, marking the first of its kind not only in Kenya but throughout the entire African continent.
During the launch, reports suggest that Biwott was furious when the pickup failed to start during the unveiling of the prototypes, leading him to cancel the entire project.
The project’s failure didn’t mark the end of Kenya’s automotive industry. Nearly thirty years later, it was revived with the production of the Mobius by Mobius Motors Kenya, a utility SUV specifically designed for the country’s terrain.
