Polite Notice: Matatus ... Plus ça change?

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a public transit customer everywhere, including Nairobi.

I'm also fascinated by this proposal by the city to regulate matatus and shift the system into a cooperative (sacco) structure. My friend (and former tango partner) who is a student at Kenyatta University in Nairobi recently sent me an update.

"The Sacco directive was a good proposal in my opinion although it would make transport relatively expensive in Nairobi and get lots of people out of their jobs," he said. Drivers but also touts (the ticket sellers on each bus) risk losing their jobs.

Right now, he says, there are cooperative matatus but individual ones remain in the system, too. The change-over has been delayed, he tells me, by debates on rising fuel costs.

"There is more talk on fuel costs which has really gone up over a short time and at the same time triggered talk on minimum wage (you probably know about this). So basically, no much developments with regard to cooperatives and the services and pretty much the same."

Plus ça change?

On Wednesday, August 10, The Nation newspaper printed an interview with Njoroge Bomasu  Kariuki, president of the Molo Line Sacco, which runs a reliable system of minibuses across Kenya. It is one of the best-known minibus cooperatives with a pretty good reputation.

Kariuki says the problem with the sacco idea is that a lot of matatu operators don't have the expertise to run that sort of business (he calls saccos a "foreign" idea, borrowed from developed countries). It could be great, especially for young people, as a source of employment, he told the newspaper. If the government wants the sacco system to catch on, he says, then it must invest in training.

It's a cut-throat business and it's also permeated by gangs and now the bus industry is getting involved (if 14-seaters are phased out, builders of larger buses could luck out in becoming the only manufacturers of public transit vehicles for the system).

Policymakers have to figure out a way to really sell the idea to all people in the matatu industry. If Molo Line managed to do it, and given that Kenya is renowned for its business entrepreneurs, there is a way to make it work and ultimately provide safer, regulated transit for passengers.