The world is advancing at a very high rate and the youth haven’t been left behind either. The battle of supremacy has emerged in the streets between the matatu’s and the youth. The matatu operators have resolved to use all means possible to attract and maintain their usual clients. The youths who are the largest in population in the city have been very choosy about the matatu to aboard. A certain young man or a lady would spend more than two or three hours just to wait for a certain matatu, not that there are no other means of transport but they want to be associated with the latest in fashion and the favorite “mat” as they call it and the owners go a step further to give them names that appeal with the youth. For example the matatu that operate on some of the routes are given the best names ever among them, HOT DOLLAR,HARLEM,BRUTAL,HEIST,RAP GAME,BOLT,TALANTA,UB- 40,ALJAZEERA,MAVADO,PUNCH,etc and many more other are but just to appeal to the youth.
The latest matatu that has just landed in a certain route and has all the characteristics of a ‘manyanga’ or ‘mboko’ becomes the topic and the gossip of the week or the month. The cars are very different from the others in terms of shape and design.
The matatu’s are designed in such a way that has a visual impact that is accompanied by a proper sound system that may tend to make no one communicate to each other especially when you have a phone call and the volume is at ear burst. A random research that I carried out from youths
aged between 18-26 years say that they better use the manyangas due to
some reasons like; speed ,the youth claim that these matatus are very fast in terms of speed and also that they know which roads to avoid due to traffic jams and also in terms of easy access to to the town centre. Thevehicles are always in a rush to drop and pick passengers and try to make as many trips as possible. The drivers and the touts work in shifts, and the vehicles owner sets an amount he/she must receive at the end of the day regardless of whatever happened and this in turn has left the staff with no option but to carry excess passengers and compete for more trips against their fellow partners.
The noise in these vehicle do not disturb the passengers but once the hoofers have been turned on the pain in the ears get more worse making the passengers put their fingers to cover their ears. The vehicle becomes more than a discotheque with the loud bangs leaving no communication between the tout, the driver or the passengers.
Most of the youth have fallen in love with the vehicles because they feel that the staffs are of their age and they see that their taste and preferences are met. The music being played at full volume is that of their favorite song and some go ahead to sing along with the tune.
These kinds of vehicles are on the rise in the city leaving the opponents with no choice but to try and emulate them, they even go a step further and charge the same fare as those of manyangas.
The vehicles apart from having nice sound system, nice decorations, both interior and exterior designs as well as nice shape and the windows have been tinted with black paper, they also have a LCD monitor screen that is used to view the content playing on the radio. To add on that these cars have access to the latest music mixes and with the latest and best deejays in town.
The bad thing with these cars are that they break almost all the traffic rules like: carrying of excess passengers ,Overlapping, picking and dropping passengers anyhow, playing music at full volume, showing explicit content, misbehaving especially when they are more than one on the road and they are heading the same way. All these offences leave the law enforcers with no option but to have a keen eye on their movement. These matatus are almost nabbed on a daily basis such that there are those that have a nice connection with the police and they can do whatever they want in their presence.
These vehicles move in a very fast pace causing alarm over it’s speed and they also move in a manner that the roads regulation board cant tolerate, lately the police ordered the removal of the Monitor screens as well as the sound system to no avail, the owners of these cars secure an assurance with the head of police in that locality and his/her vehicle is not harassed. The tinted windows act as a curtain to all the misdeeds and as a barrier to breaking the rule of carrying 14 passengers while others carry more than 20 people per trip.
The staffs of these cars are mostly young youths and are opportunists. When it’s rainy they hike the charges to get a 100% profit, these cars are also prone to theft due to their nature, they are congested and they don’t consider the people onboard especially when you want to attend to an important call and they even have a disclaimer indicating that “NO CALLS - SMS ONLY” leaving the passengers with no option but to abide by these rules.
Apart from all these rules being breached they go a step further and they don’t abide by the rules and safety standards that was set by the then minister of transport Hon. John Michuki that all public service vehicles should be fitted with safety belts and the speed governor shouldn’t exceed 80km/hr but some go to more than 120km/hr. come to think of it, are the safety standards being forced to task those of Michuki’s safety or for our safety? The ministry also needs to put in place measures to get rid of those matatu’s that play explicit content like pornographic materials and this claim has been given to the matatus operating on the route no 58 heading to Buru Buru. Those cars have been designed such that they even have LCD Screen Monitors even on the windscreen and also on the emergency exit.
By Abdulaziz Billow
