A truce for public-private motorists’ wars

By Tony Ngare

There seems to exist a healthy and mutual hatred between matatu drivers and saloon car drivers. This detestation is so strong that you rarely see a private vehicle willingly giving way to such a matatu.

Often, the struggle between the two is accompanied by name calling and screeching tyres.

So when and how did we get to this sorry state? Several schools of thought have emerged. As you would expect, this is Kenya and even when we decide to manage any project, be it national football or a cattle dip, there has to be two or three groups posturing as the most qualified and bona fide camp to run the show.

So, who are the better drivers? Fundamentally, most private vehicle drivers go through driving schools and qualify to be on our roads. While fresh from the driving school, a good number of us are eager to adhere to the road rules and signs.

However, when we become regular road-users, we swiftly realise what we were taught in driving school is rarely applied.

To survive the madness you have to do what everyone else is doing. After all, they say when you go to Rome behave like the Romans.

Rising to the occasion

So, well-drilled new drivers soon realise that to get to their destinations in good time, they have to be as combative as the situation demands. You could call it rising to the occasion.

On the other hand, matatu drivers learn the skill on the job. They usually graduate from touts and shouting hoodlums to drivers. As you would expect, they are schooled in driving in a totally different circumstance from the private vehicle driver. The matatu guy’s driving is no more than pressing the accelerator and swerving into a bus stage and back on the road. This swerving is also essential when it comes to changing lanes.

A keen student of this kind of driving will undoubtedly act in similar fashion when he becomes an accomplished driver.

To the matatu driver, the road should adjust to his or her world (I am not being gender insensitive here — women matatu drivers are as rough as their male counterparts).

Last week, my friend Vinny was involved in an altercation just outside his church with a matatu driver.

Cleansed of his sins

He was coming from church, feeling cleansed of his sins and did not even consider engaging in the name calling that the matatu driver was ready to indulge in.

Therefore, despite being on the right, he was abused in full glare of his wife and his two teenage daughters. He let it pass not wanting to turn an already bad situation worse.

Some have said that the divergent driving attitudes are a clash of sophistication. The acquisition of a car comes with behavioural change in the way we carry ourselves. Therefore, one naturally is more polite and diplomatic. It is more than common belief that matatu crew are ruffians with big mouths and small brains.

Of course, matatu driving has no allure — unless you are a confused female teenager attending some day school somewhere in an urban setting. Driving a matatu is a mundane job just like arranging cartons in a godown and, therefore, matatu drivers are not too worried about being seen as sophisticated citizens.

Another school of thought argues it’s a class thing. Matatu drivers view personal cars as economic stumps on the roads, that at best, prevent them from making more trips — and hence more money.

This position is further consolidated by the fact that most private car owners deem matatu drivers as uncouth and loutish. The fact that not many matatu drivers would take on private motorists in a brainy contest speaks for itself.

What should be done to address this situation? Have minimum entry qualifications for drivers? While we are at it, we could as well constitute a local tribunal to deal with impunity on our roads.

— [email protected]