KENYA TRAVEL GUIDE
Transport in Kenya
MATATU The way that most local people travel is by vehicles known
as matatus.The name comes from "three",because when matatus first started
running it cost three coins to travel.Matatus can be anything from small
dilapidated Peugeot 504 pick-ups with a cab on the back,to shiny,brightly
painted 20-seat minibuses complete with mega-decibel stereos,as found in
Nairobi.The majority of those which do the long-distance runs,however are
Nissan minibuses.Most matatu driver are under a lot of pressure from their
owners to maximise profits so they tend to drive recklessly and overload
their vehicles.They also put in long working days.Stories about matatu
smashes and overturnings in which many people are killed or injured can be
found daily in the newspapers.Of course many travelers use them and,in
some cases,there is no alternative,but if there is such as a bus or train
then take that in preference.The Mombasa to Nairobi road is notorious for
smashes.As in most East African countries,you can always find a matatu
which is going to the next town or further afield so long as it is not too
late in the day.Simply ask around among the drivers at the park.Matatus
leave when full and the fares are fixed.It is unlikely you will be asked
for more money than the other passengers.Matatus are not just
transport.They are Kenya's contribution to world culture.These gaudily
painted minibuses,featuring 200-decibel stereo systems pumping out disco
beats in bone-conduction level have a crew of three:the driver,who
normally has not slept for three days,keeping himself going by chewing
miraa shoots(from a tree which contains a natural amphetamine); the
conductor,who extracts fares from reluctant passengers;and the tout,a
veritable Daddy Cool whose aerial gymnastics on the outside of the minibus
ought to be an Olympic event.The tout performs these antics to attract
customers.All Nairobi matatus are individually named and some of them of
the popular ones on the Eastleigh run include"Public
Enemy","Undertaker",Get in & die","Florida 2000","You move with the
best" and "You die like the rest" . Driving standards and the frequency of
fatal accidents justify these names,yet despite this,matatus are
still the prefered mode of local transport. The following article is contributed by Nicholas Makari
Mwai : The yellow streaks of the morning
sun twitters in the cool morning breezes, a new day has just been born in
the magic Kenyan capital, ‘Matatu’, a name that stands for the public travel
car which almost every Nairobi resident will use in some time of the day
to get to his place of need; to work, to school, to hospital…and mention
the word in any bus stage, even a year old baby turns his angelic eyes in
joy; he knows though the father may not be an owner of a family car, at
least there is this one car for all families, and it’s the
matatu! But what does the name ‘ matatu’
mean? ‘tatu’ is a Kiswahili word, the common language in
A matatu in Nairobi properly
describes a 14-seater Nissan Hommy Car, or Toyota Shark models normally
used in several routes within the city, and more so, for journeys to
upcountry…. or else the name refers to 25-seater mini-buses mostly Isuzu
models, which are regarded a higher class because of their spacious cabins
and special adornments, besides being the fashionable public car for the
middle aged or the dot com age (this refers to the age that does almost
everything with the computers; reading, working ..…) and the sister name
for 25-seater matatus is ‘manyanga’; a What’s inside the
Get to the city of Nairobi at
anytime, especially rush hours….that is early mornings and evenings when
everyone is making hurried scuttles either to get to town, or to get home
and what a scene in this hour… a flowery city of moving machines adorned
in: flashy lights attached inside and outside the cabin, magnetic colored
stickers on the windscreens, windows, seats, on the ceiling and all these
have been designed in sophisticated computer graphics; thanks to design
companies like Catskill Auto-Designers who transform a one piece of plain metal from the factory to
adorable moving cabins ready to break people’s hearts…. Before any matatu is flagged off
to start business within the town, it has to pass through the test of
quality. Why this? Matatu industry is a very busy sector that brings
substantial yields to the investors, and therefore, the very stiff
competition. If the car is just a milk-white machine, plain as it was
imported from United Arab Emirates, there is a likelihood the driver and
his conductor will fetch very little, so the owners have to use the most
stylish ways to attract the choosy Nairobians who are very selective on
products especially the youth age and to understand how serious it is, a
primary school pupil would rather arrive at school two hours late, or
arrive home when people are going to bed, than use a matatu that doesn’t
match his peers’ lifestyle. Then the most important, the
identification codes for matatus…the worst moment in
The naming system! Creative
designers in the city must be very thoughtful, they use very unexpected
titles branded on the side of the cabin, or on the rear window. You would
hear a twelve-year-old asking a fellow desk mate in a science class
whether ‘Monica Lewinsky’ passed through their estate the previous night.
Of course a person might mistake the little blameless angel incase he is
not aware that “Monica” is
the newest matatu model in the route. An astonished mother would also
question her teenage daughter why she was late from school, and the
daughter defends herself that she was waiting for “ Michael Jordan”, if
the mother doesn’t know “Michael” is another matatu that has introduced
snacks and coffee to its customers as they travel, then she will
definitely start issues with the daughter. The amazing blaring horn system in
these cars would better not be left out! Pianos, or violins may or may not
be installed in the matatu but when these self-proclaimed ‘road pilots’ do
their full will to play on the sounds to alert their customers, the
estates and city roads turn into one open hall of jazz tunes, which of
course may not be admissible to most road users. Anyway all these (even
noises) lay a scoring card for commuters in deciding which matatu to use
or not use, especially the youth who will offer to pay twice as much for
these extra attributes. Not forgetting the majestic music system…. the
music source is a one-inch size woofer, but the small machine has an
amplified sound system to leave these road transport engines as mobile
discotheques where the style vary from one matatu to the other; if the
driver was Bob Marley’s personal friend, the expected tunes are of course
reggae classics, but if the driver is a 50-cent’s age-mate, its guessable
what to expect. What funnier is, the matatu owners may spend enough money
on these adornments, amount which would be ready to acquire another new
engine…. anyway what they practice is one very important element of
marketing, and that is carving a market niche. But above all these, matatu is not
a friend to all, ask any personal car driver in Nairobi what he fears most
in the road, you may make an intelligent guess, he fears hijacking, that
is partially right but what puts his nerves to test….is the scene of an
emerging matatu either from behind or at the front. This is enough to make
him retire prematurely from driving; the way the engines are driven make
your innocent personal car ‘brake and dance’ like Schumacher’s formula one
rally car, they will force you to reduce your acceleration down from 180
kilometers per hour to zero in less than a second, they change lanes when
they want…but the good thing about it, if you get a ‘pass’ certificate
after the ‘matatus menace’ races, you are eligible to drive anywhere in
the world and may even end up being the driver of the
century……. Year 2004 saw a dramatic upheaval
in this sector especially after the government-changed hands. There
before, matatu industry was a one confused system, which had a very
disorganized management. Commuters were harassed in broad daylight,
cartels had emerged to control the routes where they charged exorbitant
rates on the owners, government lost innumerable amount of income to the
evasive taxpayers and the worst of it, accidents maimed lives everyday and
this saw the emergence of what many people referred to as ‘castration of
the matatu regime’. Why the word? Castration is a term that is
normally applied in the animal kingdom to emphasize an act done on animals
to reduce exaggerated ‘heat’. Matatus in Nairobi were purely a headache,
they had risen up to uncontrollable levels of misdemeanor…and to witness
why castration was a matter of urgency…the scene is in one of these
matatus, and the time is 4.30 pm, a certain day in year 2003 sometime
before the changes were effected, you are just an innocent passenger
perhaps for one best reason, you don’t own a personal car! Now you are
seated comfortably on the spongy seats but above all, what you are missing
most is, being at your house fastest way possible. But before you get
there, here a price to pay for not owning an own car! The driver who looks
half- sober touches a button on the remote-controlled mini-hi-fi, and the
matatu cabin turns into one thunderstorm ….a
jukebox… Just before the above sweet words
on the sticker sink on your good mind, here is another 21st century
innovation, the DVD (Short for Digital Video Decoder)…. Remember it’s the
year 2003, when the gadget is very new in the Kenyan markets; Sony World
must have given the That wasn’t all; matatus could
comfortably speed at 200 kilometers per hour; and inside were passengers
packed like sardines in a can leaving no ventilation in the whole cabin.
The now 14-seater used to carry 25 passengers. Guess how? The vehicle had
seats in four rows, and the arrogant conductors would command passengers
to stay in two’s on one seat, it was then you and your colleague to
interpret what that meant, anyway there was no choice but to do exactly
that. The formula was, you sit on the laps of your colleague…now the
problem would be, similarly to the DVD story, a twenty year old daughter
is traveling with her respected father, and she is forced to rest on her
father’s lap, now imagine when in these positions, the car is flying at
the scaring speed and unfortunately, an accident happens. This resulted to
grisly scenes; the car would be reduced to a fresh iron ore, and the
passengers would be piled in one stack of mashed meat! The above illustrations were once
real in the Safety belts! Kenyans used to
think as it goes birds is to feathers…safety belt was to aeroplanes. But
this no more, even the grandfathers and mothers in the upcountry now strap
on safety belts whenever they travel in the matatus, though it was quite
an uphill task training the folks on how to fit in these gadget. In the
first days of training, many did not remember belts are unfastened at end
of their journeys, and had bitter struggles with these unwelcome straps
but today a matatu seat is never complete without the belt, and a penalty
too if one is caught by a traffic policeman without a belt on, a fine of
five hundred Kenya shillings and twice amount on the
driver. All above meant all matatu’s had
to go back to the mechanical board, and undergo rigorous restructuring;
new upholstery, new repainting and this exercise phased out all
un-roadworthy matatus which had guised as ‘friendly’ but used to be the
‘death traps’…in addition to that, the drivers and conductors had to
obtain certificates of good conduct from the Criminal Investigation
Department, this was to track down any who may have ever escaped a
misconduct, or who might be in the most-wanted list by the department. The
matatu drivers had to start wearing blue colored uniform, while
conductor’s worn red for identification and to crown it all, matatus and
buses owners had to apply afresh for new licensing, but before that, they
had to undergo a thorough inspection to certify all regulations had been
duly satisfied. That is the transformation of the
now A Nairobi-Mombasa
journey. A train
journey. The state corporation,
In the second class, you
have a bed and meals, but you may miss the free water or personalized
service. Then the pocket-friendly third class of course the cheapest, but
you only have a seat, that is, if you are lucky to have gotten
one. If you have sufficient time, and
great liking of adventure, the train journey between the two cities is one
of the highlights of Kenyan travel and every visitor must! make an odyssey
between the If you want to complete
your great Kenyan visit, then have to hook up with a steam-powered
‘tourist special train’. This is a reconditioned train from the
19th century British Empire engines, and takes place perhaps
once in a month, through prior reservations. Tickets are readily
purchased from
Departure
time Arrival
time Days Mombasa 08.30 Hrs following
day Every Monday Wednesday and
Friday Nairobi 09.00 Hrs following
Day Every Tuesday Thursday and
Sunday It costs Shs. 3000 per
person (Approximate US $40) to travel in a first class. This price is
inclusive of dinner, bed & breakfast, while it costs shs. 2100 per
person (price inclusive of bed & breakfast). These are single
journeys. Children between 3 years and 15 years of age pay half
fare. The train journey as
compared to the other kinds of travel is the safest and most convenient,
you have got the chance to have the most scenic way of travel, can even
stand on top of the seats to view the splendid terrains of the Athi
plains, the Mtito Andei forests…. however, it’s the slowest, have to
expect delays…. therefore be ready to spend your half -day inside the
berth. Air
travel. Air travel is the other
common mode of connecting between the two cities. You can use a flight
with the Kenya Airways, Air Kenya or Regional Air.
There are also private airlines, which operate light aircrafts.
The chief air travel in
To travel between the two towns by
air, just takes one hour. For example, in either way, Kenya Airways has a
daily service on three departures at various times of the day between
1000Hrs and 1845 Hrs. It costs US $ 95(Kshs 7000) to travel one way (rates
are not inclusive of taxes and are subject to change). Infants are charged
10% of the applicable adult fare and children are carried at 75% of the
fare. Just a flip on the general conditions, passengers must check-in 45
minutes before the scheduled departure times, otherwise the airline
reserves the right to reallocate seats if passengers have not checked-in
20 minutes before. Below is a schedule of Air
Kenya daily flights, from Nairobi to towns of Lamu and Malindi, the
two towns are in the coastal belt, and everyone who visits Mombasa must
complete the visit by making a date with either of the
towns.. Nairobi-Lamu.
From To depart arrive Lamu 1315
HRS 1445
HRS Lamu 1530
HRS 1700
HRS Nairobi-Malindi
From To depart arrive Malindi 1715
HRS 1845
HRS Malindi 1900
HRS 2030
HRS It costs US $ 100(Kshs
7,500) to Traveling by air in
between the cities is one of the luxurious modes, and the fastest, within
one hour you are already in one city from the other. However it’s the most
expensive, and also has to be aware of various terms and conditions of the
airlines to avoid disappointments. Travel by a
bus. A bus travel to or from
A
A bus travel will take
mostly between 6-10 hrs. The charges are approximately Shs 500-900(6 to 12
US $) this depends on the class of the bus, the newer models are quite
expensive with special attributes such as adjustable seats that allow you
convert to a bed … In high seasons such as the Christmas and Easter
holidays, most buses hike their fares since many people like visiting the
coast at these periods and so a lot of congestion in the stages, so its
advisable to make advance bookings perhaps an hour or before departure
times. It can be made in their respective offices, or in advanced
companies such as Standard Express, it’s possible to do it online.
Buses are comfortable, reliable and cheaper to travel though quite slower.
Travel by a
car. Traveling in a car is the other
customized way to get to Getting in between the two cities is
a journey of 500 kilometers (300 miles) with segments of bumpy and rough
roads alternating with smooth and soothing sections. Driving is on the
left hand, and though not required, its convenient to have an
International Driving Licence. You need to have a valid driving license,
which has to be endorsed at the Road transport office in
Before you embark on the
long journey, it’s extremely important that the car is mechanically sound,
because the journey is quite a challenge. This will minimize delays and
incidental costs related to car service on your way. The Nairobi-Mombasa
highway is a 24 hr busy road, with all kinds of machines in the road; huge
trucks hauling long trailers ferrying cargo to other parts of the country
from the ports, fleets of buses carrying passengers, small cars, big cars
and all of them traveling at different and scaring speeds. Its good to be
aware of the turbulence created by big trucks and lorries (moving in the
opposite direction), if not cautious they will blow your light car to
leave you dance either out or in the middle of the
road. Its always pretty good to
drive during the day, some areas on the way are extremely dangerous of
highway robbers, this is especially at the section of the Mtito Andei
thickets. They would lay sharp but unnoticeable items on the road to
deflate your tyres, and if your car becomes the victim…its most likely you
will get at the beach penniless, having been cleaned by the muggers in the
dark-forests. It goes that if your car gets a puncture along
Mombasa-Nairobi Highway especially in the ‘not-clear’ zones, don’t try to
pull up on the roadside…block the whole road with your vehicle, this will
force other vehicles to stop and give you a compulsory assistance,
otherwise no driver will risk to stop willingly in the notorious
zone. Getting to Mombasa or
Nairobi in your car, is surely the most enjoyable way of travel; you have
all the time to stop at areas of your pleasure, watch the scenic
landscapes…the desert jungles, the dancing acacias, the wild game…and of
course you may opt to spend nights in the comfortable highway motels. You
have the most flexible departure and arrival times, may decide to make the
journey in few hour or may even decide to take a whole week. Otherwise
it’s an expensive way of travel, you risk disposing off your car after the
hectic mileage (to and fro) and if personally driving, it calls for a
considerable experience in long journey travel..
Any
visitor to
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