By Mark Mutahi

A leading matatu Sacco in Nairobi County has sacked one of its drivers for being too professional and careful on the road.

One of the Sacco officials accused the driver of being too different from the rest of matatu drivers and, therefore, a disgrace to the sector.

Profits

“He refuses to stop at undesignated places to pick passengers. He he doesn’t overlap. He doesn’t overload. If he won’t overload, how does he expect the matatu owner to make profits? We cannot keep such an incompetent and irresponsible fellow,” the official announced.

Colleagues of the sacked driver also levelled a lot of criticism against him.

“He even indicates when changing lanes,” a colleague was quoted saying. “Seriously, who does that anymore? That’s killing the battery!”

The now jobless man was also accused of putting fellow matatu drivers in a difficult situation since passengers expected them to behave like him. They complained that the man was turning the sector upside down.

“Passengers were beginning to expect the same conduct from other drivers. I am telling you if he had been allowed a little more time to operate, he would have led us down the drain. We have our own rules and we adhere to them strictly,” he added.

Officials at the Sacco also accuse him of spoiling his conductor.

 “The conductor was previously rude and uncouth to passengers, which is the appropriate standard, but after some time, he started changing, addressing passengers respectively. That’s what broke the camel’s back. We couldn’t let a ruffian be turned into a softie just like that.

“This business is for the rough and tough. It has come this far by terrorising passengers and instilling fear in them. If you start becoming sentimental with your customers, they will ride roughshod over you!” warned the official. “Besides it is confusing and shocking to the passengers who don’t expect any better from our industry.”

County assembly

The former colleagues who were angered by the man’s professionalism and good customer service skills had begun wondering what it is that he wanted to prove. Rumours had even begun spreading that the behaviour was typical of someone eyeing a county assembly seat.

“What point does he want to make?” one of them posed. “That he did not bribe to get his driving license? That he went to a competent driving school? Nonsense!”

Traffic police officers along the route the driver operated on were also relieved to hear he had been fired.

An officer who declined to be named claimed that in his brief stint in the area, he had been unable to extract even a single bribe from the said driver since he never broke any traffic rules.

“It was so frustrating. It reached a point where I got tired of flagging him down. He is the wrong fellow for business. If every matatu driver were like him, I would have no more reason to be a traffic police officer. I would just quit and find something else to do — maybe hawking,” confessed the officer.