Matatus

Local transportation in Kenya consists largely of matatus, which are minivans or pickup trucks.  Well, actually most transportation is on foot.  But for trips that are farther than walking distance, a matatu is the option for most Kenyans.  What is walking distance?  That depends how much money a person has.  Some people will walk miles and miles, while others will take a matatu for a trip of only a mile.  Car prices are similar to car prices in the developed world, so a private car is out of reach of the vast majority of Kenyans.

Modern matatus are usually a minivan that holds 9 people, 3 in the front, 3 in the middle, and three in the back.  There are laws that require one seat belt per passenger, and there are police checkpoints to make sure there are an appropriate number of passengers in the vehicle.  The passengers don’t have to be wearing the seatbelts though…

Matatu operators sometimes dodge these checkpoints.  There is frequently a checkpoint at a switchback on the road heading east from Iten.  A few weeks ago I was in a minivan with about a dozen people.  The driver stopped above the switchback and 3 people got out and walked down a trail that skipped the switchback.  We passed the checkpoint and picked up the passengers.

We were in one matatu that had about 16 people on board.  There were two in the driver’s seat!  This was on a minor road, so we had counted ourselves lucky to get a vehicle in the first place.  Apparently so did all the other folks!

Two in the drivers seat.  I think the guy on the right is actually driving!

Most matatus have a staff of two: a driver and a conductor.  The conductor opens and shuts the doors and collects the fares.  Somehow he (I’ve yet to see a female driver or conductor) remembers where everyone got on and off and charges the correct fare.  The fares are standard and we have not been overcharged for matatu rides.  The conductor alerts the driver to start moving by hitting the outside of the vehicle.  Invariably, the conductor is still standing on the ground.  As the vehicle starts the conductor jumps on and closes the door.  When the matatu gets filled the conductor often stands with his butt to the door, bent over, closing the door behind his back as the matatu roars down the road.

Some matatus are “direct.”  If we want to travel quickly to Eldoret, a major city about 30km from us, we will walk to the center of town and catch a direct matatu.   Alternatively, we can stand beside the road just about anywhere and flag down a matatu.  On our road the average wait time is about 3 minutes.  These “local” matatus will stop frequently to pick up and drop passengers, so the trip to Eldoret might take a little longer.

A matatu will rarely leave a city empty.  A direct matatu will always be full, so sometimes we have sat in a matatu waiting for others to arrive to fill all the seats.  Now there seems to be an informal line so that matatus fill in order.

Old Style Matatu- still loading more people!

Carey’s experiences with matatus in the 1980s sound more like the wild west.  Matatus were the old truck type.  There are a few of these around still, and it looks like about 25 people can fit in the covered back of an old pickup truck.  Conductors would compete to herd potential passengers into their matatu.  Occasionally there would be “decoy” passengers to make Carey think the vehicle was about to leave.  Once she got in, the “decoy” passengers would leave.  Once the driver started the packed matatu and then slammed on the brakes.  As everyone slid forward in the back of the pickup, the conductor squeezed a few more people in.

The safety record of matatus is not great.  Our friend Anders observed “Kenyans never seem to be in a rush unless they’re behind the wheel of a matatu.”  We’ve heard many stories of people being injured or killed in matatu accidents.  The new laws have increased safety, but some of these drivers are very aggressive.  Kenyan roads are not well marked or maintained.

Overall, the matatu network is quite effective.  We have not spent much time waiting, and are able to go just about wherever we want.  Our per capita fuel economy is high, as matatus usually have a lot of people on board.  The cost of transportation is much lower than buying, fueling, and maintaining a car.  I wonder if some kind of system could be adapted to the U.S.  We really like our cars and our independence in the U.S., but driving all over the place with one person in a car is a big part of our environmental impact.  But the thing that makes the matatu network function is that nearly everyone uses it.  If half the people used it, the wait times would be twice as long.  The root of the matatu system is a country where people can’t afford private cars.  But that also means that Kenyans spend a lot less and have a smaller environmental impact than Americans getting from place to place.