Matatu Madness: Ongata Line Edition

It is sad when life is lost, especially when it could have been avoided. For the past day or so, the Matatu Sacco, Ongataline Trans has been in the news. This is due to an accident on Lang’ata Road involving one of their matatus which claimed four lives and injured six people. It is not the first time this has happened. Earlier in the year, a matatu belonging to the same Sacco was involved in an unfortunate accident at the Cooperative University which killed students and injured others. These two cases are not the only ones involving matatus that ply the Ongata Rongai to Nairobi, it is an ongoing problem perpetrated by reckless drivers that treat the pimped up rides like their personal drag race vehicles. 

This impunity only exists because of alleged ‘God-fathers’ and corruption on Kenyan roads. But these are not the only enabling parameters for this kind of behavior; the biggest culprits are the passengers themselves. When I was a resident of Ongata Rongai, I used these matatus and witnessed first-hand the machinations of the hippest matatus in town.