Your Soul for Ten Shillings

A mobile phone video doing rounds on the inter-webs depicts a woman roughing up a bewildered matatu-conductor, demanding that he gives back her Sh20 or face her wrath.

Apparently, the conductor had told her that the fare on the Eastern Bypass route was Sh80 and then conveniently failed to give her back Sh20 when the woman gave out a Sh100 note.

Typical viral video stuff. Yet this is not the first time something like this has happened.

 

A life for 10 shillings

In 2013, a woman in Kawangware was thrown out of a moving matatu when she failed to produce Sh10 to top up her fare. The tout demanded Sh40. She only had Sh30. She paid the balance with her life. 

It was too late for the driver of a bus closely following the matatu to step on the brakes.

I normally take a matatu to and from work. When I go to the bus stop for my ride home, I identify the right matatu by the metal sign-board placed on top of the van indicating the route number and respective stops.

The unwritten rule

Also clearly painted onto the black sign-board is the price of the fare to my destination. But experience has taught me that these numbers are at best suggestions and estimates of the actual fare.

The unwritten rule is: “Don’t get into the matatu until you have identified the designated conductor and confirmed the fare. Don’t even trust the shouts from the paid touts.”

Some of the Saccos have even gone to great lengths to outline (inside the matatu) the different stops with respective fare prices for both peak hours and off-peak hours. 

But these figures are often indiscernible since they have been scratched off or scribbled over by someone who clearly didn’t want them seen – along with the telephone numbers a distressed or disgruntled passenger should call in case of an emergency.

Signs of Impunity

If you are a sign reader, then you may call these examples just a few of the “signs of impunity” in the notorious matatu sector. 

Despite the government coming up with stringent laws requiring all matatus be part of a Sacco and that they standardise fares for different routes, these requirements have largely been ignored, making their labels merely ceremonial.

No wonder some distraught passengers are taking matters (and the collars of matatu conductors for that matter) into their own hands. It would be easy to dismiss the woman’s distress as a sign of the tough economic times. 

In the video, she even mentions something about the fact that the conductor who overcharged her doesn’t know what it means to feed children with 20 shillings.

But I am persuaded that at the root of her strong emotions and adrenaline-charged actions is a strong sense of justice that each of us has been naturally endowed with.

Oh the humanity

The woman in the video is not really fighting for Sh20 as she is fighting for the truth. She is fighting for her humanity, not willing to have it taken for granted.

Unfortunately, and I have seen this myself, other passengers who would rather part with Sh20 than fight just sit there and watch.

I sadly to admit that my peace-loving-mind-your-business-recluse self has often caused me to allow the scheming matatu operators have their way with innocent passengers. 

We sell our souls every time we sit back and allow these people to do whatever they want with their fellow human beings.

It is time Kenyans stood up for our humanity and justice and stopped being held hostage every day on our way to and from their homes.