Matatu Culture

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We have come a long way to this! From walking to riding like kings aboard what we call in our slang "mat, nganya, mathree, etc". If you think what you are seeing is a Boeing's business class cabin then you are sadly mistaken my friend! What you are seeing is a transformation, its art, its creativity, its culture, its class, its comfort, its business, its employment and its a mode of transport for Nairobi residents!

It all started in the 90s when Nairobi was going through urbanization, lots and lots of people had migrated to the city in the sun - in search of green pastures, the spiralling population brought with it a need for expansion in the matatu industry among other services. Back in the days when law and order used to mean something, Nairobi used to travel by a system that was more orderly and run by state but as usual, the managers who had be entrusted with day to day filled their pockets and alas it was no more!

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Kenya bus above was our mode of transport, quite, well behaved staff, obedient to law and disciplined to them customer was king. You were treated with the utmost respect. The buses were huge and had two doors, the front was entry and the back door was exit. I remember taking a lot of free rides when i was in primary school by playing a game of hide and seek with the conductor 😁 woe unto you if you got caught - you'd pay double the amount! Bus fare wasn't much but if you succeeded in not paying, it meant you had enough money to buy ice cream and sugar dip for a week.

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Then the double deckers were introduced! I never had an opportunity to board one, but from the stories told it was fun and scary at the same time.
You çan understand from the photos of nganyas above how they were all phased out! They could not handle the competition!

EXIT ORDER ENTER CHAOS

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For a matatu to qualify a nganya it should have the following characteristics.

• Blaring music
• loud exhausts
• irritating hoots
• blinding lights
• tv screens
• awesome artwork and colours
• a highly urbanized workforce
• some even have aquariums!
  And a crazy driver who spirals from right to left side of road to pedestrian side walks to wharever space is available just to see himself moving, in total disregard of law! Traffic jam is not their cup of tea and rules are non existent to these lot!

I don't want to sound grumpy but when you reach a certain age none of these really matters. I am not mistaken to think that they do all these for older folks, they have a certain niche to target and a credibility to represent. Nairobi consists of 60% youth most of them going to school in the city, their preferred transport means being the matatus or nganyas as they fondly call them. The rest of us prefer quite and peace that is offered in a bus.

A single nganya investment with all the above amenities will set you back ks 8 million or $ 80 thousand! The returns are fairly good but your profits are shared with several cartels the name of police traffic cops, city council traffic marshals, touts, bus managers and other thugs! Leaving you with some measly amount to service the loan and pay your driver. The matatu industry is run mafia style its like the yakuza, its highly organised and some even use it to launder money!

The matatus have dedicated parking slots in the city, there's a whole lot story about these slots commonly known as "shimo" or loosely translated as a hole. Now, the managers pay the council to be allocated these parking slots, this is where the touts shout and call out for passengers to fill the matatu. Violent fights erupt when other matatus operate on a slot that is not theirs!

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Matatus in a "shimo". There's a lot of matatu parking slots making Nairobi almost impassable during the peak hours. Throw in the hawkers (story for another day) in there and Nairobi is total chaos!

EMPLOYMENT

The emergence of matutus has helped a great deal in youth employment, a directive issued by the president a while back allowing the stakeholders to go crazy on making the matatu a nganya saw to it that in an industry previously dominated by the older folks brought in a young vibrant youth with fresh ideas. Those that were good in art work and painting, music and screen installation, beautiful rims, music cds providers (infact quite a few talented djs were discovered to fame through free supply of music cds to nganya) and other forms of fabrications got opportunities to showcase.
The banks have also not been left behind in provision of loans for purchase of these matatus. The service and spare part business, the petroleum sector has also greatly benefited. Its been an enormous pusher that has driven the economy and cannot be ignored!

254 nganya pics

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