NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Caroline Mwikali lost her ability to walk at age 13 after an illness. She quickly learned how difficult it is to get around in Kenya’s busy capital, Nairobi.
Mwikali, who now works at a car financing company, said public transport is not designed to accommodate wheelchair users like her.
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A man helps Carol Mwikali to get inside a public transport vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside an Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali sits inside an Ace Mobility company vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali rides around on a wheelchair in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali, who uses a wheelchair, poses for a photo during an interview with Associated Press in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Nairobi's most popular modes of transport include motorbikes along with minivans and minibuses that are not fitted with ramps. They also are not designed to fit wheelchairs in their aisles, so users must be hoisted up the stairs and placed on regular seats while their wheelchairs are put with luggage.
“In most cases, the people manning the bus terminals have to lift you off the wheelchair to help you board the buses. This is not only uncomfortable but leaves you attracting unnecessary attention from the public,” Mwikali told The Associated Press.
She is among 2.2% of Kenya’s population, or about 900,000 people, who live with a disability. The most common type of disability is mobility-related at 42%.
One entrepreneur, Daniel Gatura, founded Ace Mobility in Nairobi in 2021. Its vehicles are modified with ramps and swivel seats to accommodate people with disabilities and anyone else who needs support commuting.
Gatura said he was inspired by a personal experience growing up.
“My father sustained a spinal cord injury in an accident that left him in a wheelchair when he was just 5 years old. I witnessed the challenges my father faced, including losing his job due to transportation issues,” Gatura said.
Users can book rides through the Ace Mobility app. Drivers are trained as caregivers, ensuring they understand how to provide respectful and appropriate assistance to passengers with disabilities.
Gatura said they have 5,000 users.
“We are changing the narrative around disability and reduced mobility. Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you cannot earn for yourself; it doesn’t mean you are a nobody in the society,” he said.
The transport is more expensive than public transport, charging the equivalent of $1 per kilometer (0.6 miles). The same amount can be used to pay for a 40-kilometer (24-mile) ride in public transport vehicles. But Gatura noted it delivers people directly to their homes.
“I find the charges quite fair considering the convenience that it offers. I get to travel comfortably and without necessarily moving from my chair. It also somehow preserves my dignity,” said Mwikali, who has used the service for four months after a referral from a former classmate.
But others like Cindy Cherotich can't afford the service. She must jostle for space on minibuses while on crutches.
“When I go to the bus station sometimes the public vehicles do not allow me to board," she said. “When they see my crutch and (see) somebody who is OK without crutches, they will let them in and I will be left.”
Lucy Nkatha, a disability advocate and coordinator of Kiengu Women Challenged to Challenge Group, an NGO, said she had never heard of Ace Mobility and called for marketing support for such companies.
“It should also be made affordable,” she said.
Sandra Nyawira, the disability inclusion adviser at United Disabled Persons of Kenya, noted that Kenya has a number of policies in place to address accommodations for people with disabilities, but implementation is rare. She called for more political will.
“It’s one thing to have a policy that speaks to your issues, but then it’s another to implement them,” she said.
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
A man helps Carol Mwikali to get inside a public transport vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside an Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali sits inside an Ace Mobility company vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali rides around on a wheelchair in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Daniel Gatura, Co-founder of Ace Mobility company, helps Carol Mwikali to get inside Ace Mobility vehicle in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)
Carol Mwikali, who uses a wheelchair, poses for a photo during an interview with Associated Press in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters scrambled to corral a fast-moving wildfire in the Los Angeles hillsides dotted with celebrity homes as a potentially “life-threatening, destructive” windstorm hit Southern California on Tuesday, fanning the blaze seen for miles while traffic out of the area was jammed as residents tried to flee.
Forecasters warned the worst may be yet to come with the windstorm predicted to last for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills.
Already the winds were toppling trees, creating dangerous surf and bringing extreme wildfire risk to areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.
Fire crews were battling a handful of small blazes in the Los Angeles area, including in the foothills of the Pacific Palisades area in western Los Angeles where residents were ordered to evacuate. The Palisades Fire swiftly consumed more than 200 acres (81 hectares) of dry brush and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the city. Residents in Venice Beach, some 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, reported seeing the flames.
Actor James Woods posted footage of flames burning through bushes and past palm trees on a hill near his Pacific Palisades home. The towering orange flames billowed among the landscaped yards between the large homes on the steep hillside.
“Standing in my driveway, getting ready to evacuate,” Woods said in the short video on X.
Actor Steve Guttenberg, who lives in the Pacific Palisades, urged people who abandon their cars to leave their keys behind so he can move their cars out of the way for firetrucks. He described fire burning in the neighborhood as people tried to evacuate.
“This is not a parking lot,” Guttenberg told KTLA. “I have friends up there and they can’t evacuate … I’m walking up there as far as I can moving cars.”
The erratic weather caused President Joe Biden to cancel plans to travel to inland Riverside County, California, where he was to announce the establishment of two new national monuments in the state. Biden will deliver his remarks in Los Angeles instead.
The National Weather Service said what could be the strongest Santa Anawindstorm in more than a decade began Tuesday across Los Angeles and Ventura counties and was forecast to peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80 mph (129 kph).
The weather service warned of possible downed power lines and knocked-over big rigs, trailers, and motorhomes. Strong offshore gusts will also bring dangerous conditions off the coasts of Orange and Los Angeles counties, including Catalina Island, and potential delays and turbulence could arise at local airports.
The Los Angeles Unified School District said it was temporarily relocating students from three campuses in the Pacific Palisades area due to the fire.
Utilities said they were considering preemptively cutting power starting Tuesday to about a half-million customers across eight counties. In recent years, California utilities have routinely de-energized electrical lines as a precaution against weather conditions that might damage equipment and spark a fire.
The winds will act as an “atmospheric blow-dryer” for vegetation, bringing a long period of fire risk that could extend into the more populated lower hills and valleys, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
“We really haven't seen a season as dry as this one follow a season as wet as the previous one,” Swain said during a Monday livestream. “All of that extra abundant growth of grass and vegetation followed immediately by a wind event of this magnitude while it's still so incredibly dry," elevates the risk.
Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there’s been very little rain so far this season.
Southern California hasn’t seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimeters) of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, up north, there have been multiple drenching storms.
Areas where gusts could create extreme fire conditions include the charred footprint of last month’s wind-driven Franklin Fire, which damaged or destroyed 48 structures, mostly homes, in and around Malibu.
The blaze was one of nearly 8,000 wildfires that added up to scorch more than 1,560 square miles (more than 4,040 square kilometers) in the Golden State last year.
The last wind event of this magnitude occurred in November 2011, during which more than 400,000 customers lost power across LA County, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The grid is built to withstand strong winds,” said Jeff Monford, a spokesperson for the utility. “The issue here is the possibility of debris becoming airborne and hitting wires ... or a tree coming down.”
Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A lone beachgoer walks along the coast as a large dark plume of smoke passes over the beach from a wildfire from Pacific Palisades, from Santa Monica, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Firefighters battle the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter protects a structure from the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Firefighters protect structures from the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A swimmer watches as a large dark plume of smoke passes over the beach from a wildfire from Pacific Palisades, in Santa Monica, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
People flee from the advancing Palisades Fire, by car and on foot, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire around a structure in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A field catches fire under a tree during the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A pair of firefighters try to protect themselves from flying embers from the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Firefighters try to protect themselves from flying embers from the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
Firefighters stage in front of the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles,Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
People wait with some belongings while fleeing the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter battles the advancing Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A person flees from an advancing wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Smoke from a wildfire is seen from the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A woman cries as the Palisades Fire advances in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire as it damages a property in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Heavy smoke from a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades rises over the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia)
Smoke from a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades rises over the 405 freeway in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
FILE - Flags fly under heavy winds before sunset as a plume of smoke from the Franklin Fire rises over the ocean Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File)
Tall palm trees sway during extreme gusty winds in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
A tree blocks a street after falling amid strengthening winds Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Northeast Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)
FILE - Marvin Meador walks on the remains of his fire-ravaged property after the Mountain Fire swept through, Nov. 7, 2024, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
