6 Reasons to: Celebrate the matatu crackdown

An impounded matatu. The matatu crackdown seeks to restore sobriety on the roads and reduce road accidents that have been rampant in the recent past. PHOTO | FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • I never knew that matatus can be so comfortable to ride in until this crackdown happened.
  • One time the conductor crammed five of us on three seats and one passenger sat on my left thigh all the way to town.
  • It feels nice to settle in my seat with the reassuring tug of a seatbelt keeping me from being bounced up and down like a ping-pong ball whenever we got a pothole.

Before you accuse me of crying louder than the bereaved let me begin by saying that I rely wholly on matatus to commute.

When the crackdown took effect on Monday morning, I was up at 4am with the hope of catching an early bird matatu that would risk ferrying people before the police hit the road.

I got to the stage a few minutes past 5am and found it thronged with sleepy-eyed commuters. I joined them in what appeared to be a choreographed dance of craning our necks left and right, hoping to sight one of the rickety matatus that ply our route. Tough luck!

SCRAMBLE FOR SEATS

Some minutes later, a matatu appeared round the corner. The next thing I knew I was clutching at someone's coat-tails for support after being thrust by a voluptuous woman who jostled her way into the matatu. The scramble for Africa has nothing on what I witnessed that morning.

I regained my composure just in time to see the conductor order two passengers to alight because the matatu was fully occupied.

The passengers shot him a bewildered look but he didn't mince his words when he repeated the order. It was surreal!

I remembered one time a conductor crammed five of us on three seats and one passenger sat on my left thigh all the way to town.

SHARPLY DRESSED

After a few minutes another matatu pulled up and this time; I was wiser. I sprung to the door, thrust my chest forward and wiggled into the matatu seat.

As I settled in, I caught a glimpse of a slight-framed woman grasping desperately at a nearby post for support as two sharply dressed men shoved her aside and made a beeline for the matatu.

Clearly, despite their well-pressed suits, the circumstance did not give room for “gentleman” behaviour.

Apart from struggling to get a ride to town and paying double the usual fare, here are six things I found worth celebrating during the matatu crackdown:

It will guarantee safety on our roads. This remains the biggest win. Now, the matatus must have functioning speed governors, seatbelts and must have been cleared as roadworthy.

Too many people have lost lives on our roads due to lack of compliance to safety measures by matatus and public service vehicles. This crackdown seeks to put an end to that, gradually. And that is something worth celebrating.

The quality of service in public service vehicles has improved tremendously. I never knew that matatus can be so comfortable to ride in until this crackdown happened.

It feels nice to settle in my seat with the reassuring tug of a seatbelt keeping me from being bounced up and down like a ping-pong ball whenever we got to a pothole.

More importantly, the days of having grown adults sit on my thigh in matatus are over. Please, let's toast to that!

It has created employment. There's a new profession in town, especially at major stages like Odeon in city centre. Or maybe it is an old profession that has peaked during this crackdown season -- the “queue-holder”.

I got to the stage from work and found this really long queue as has been the norm for the past few days. I walked up to a young man and inquired if the queue was for my route.

"I don't know," he answered while staring at me blankly.

I thought he was being rude. But just before I left, he added: "I am queuing for someone. At an affordable cost of course. I will flash dial them when I get closer to the boarding point."

I walked to the back of the queue amused and amazed by the Kenyan entrepreneurial spirit.

It has put budget management skills to test. Spending transport money planned for two weeks in three days was not what I had in mind when I set apart this month's travel budget.

After much thought, I have realised that I don’t need that shoe rack after all. As for these mushrooming Black Friday offers, I "choose" to resist the wave of consumerism.

With these negligible adjustments, I have proved to myself that I can manage a budget quite effectively.

It has brought out our great sense of humour in a very flattering manner. Car owners have gotten a grand opportunity to make fun of all "savers" who insist that owning a vehicle is not a priority. They told us to ride our bedsitters to work. Some were curious to know whether the Joska and Malaa plots got us to work safely.

Thankfully, these jokes kept us entertained as we queued for hours on end waiting for the only two compliant matatus plying our route.

It provided an opportunity to network and meet new people. We need to make another toast to relationships that began in matatu waiting queues. We wish you happiness ever after.

It went down like this:

“Kumbe this crackdown was for real?"

“Looks like it. I am going to be so late for work. This is bad ...”

“Relax, it's not like you will get fired. Everyone knows it's not been business as usual on the roads.”

“You haven't met my boss. I can't afford to lose my job with how things are in this country. I wouldn't survive.”

“Don't worry about it. Even if they fire you, just come we live together, kwani? By the way, I am Brian but you can call me Brayo.”

Normalcy is returning on the roads; kudos to all players in the transport industry. Soon we will be too busy to even notice people at the stage, let alone chat with them.

All the same, it's been real!