Why women fall for ‘makangas’

It is a question we’ve pondered since independence: Why do women go gaga over makangas?

It’s not like their careers have upward mobility and high social standing. Their ignorance on matters etiquette can fill a library. Most cannot win awards in the hygiene department either. Some only speak sheng as their first (and last) language.

Is it that women genetically have a thing for men who hang on matatu doors as the wind blows their shirts to expose belly buttons? Or is the sight of bus fare notes being collected from grumbling passengers before being folded round the makanga’s index finger and thumb enough to tip the balance?

We explore reasons women cannot resist makangas and matatu drivers.

  He gave me free rides

Have you ever seen how makangas convince women to board matatus? “Sasa supuu. Vile unakaa poa hivyo, si ukalie tu twende tao? (Hey cutie, gosh! the way you look so hot! How about you hop in for a ride to town?) and before you know it, you are an item.

Joyce Chelanga told us that, “I met the father of my children when he was a tout on route 46 (Kawangware). I was in college then. Sometimes I did not have bus fare and he would give me a free ride. We got married after college and by then he was a driver. When I got my job, we saved together and bought a matatu.” But Joyce later separated from his baby daddy when he refused to leave the matatu business. “It’s addictive. He did not want to leave and I kept hearing stories of him flirting with passengers in the matatu. I had to leave him,” she revealed. 

  Makangas got lugha

Makangas have mastered the art of sweet-talking, not only girls, but passengers in general. How else do you think they manage to fill a bus despite competition? His tattered cloths and broken English notwithstanding, a tout has the confidence to walk up to a woman and tell her that she’s got a diamond mark of quality from Kebs! 

Alice Omondi, a pharmacist, does not understand how her sister dropped out of school to get married to a konkodi. “My younger sister broke our parents’ hearts. She was a medicine student at the University of Nairobi but dropped out to get married to a tout in Huruma,” Alice explained, adding that, “Her friends told us that the man convinced her to leave school and promised to take care of her. She did. She does not even talk to us anymore.” 

They are bad boys

Kanges can be ruthless. Aren’t they the same people who have been accused of stripping women for wearing miniskirts? Well, some women just love bad boys. It’s like they crave to be treated badly by men who openly flirt with other girls. Cindy Nasieku lost her sister to a violent tout.

“My sister ran away from home in 1996. She was in class seven when she discovered that she was pregnant with this tout’s baby who used to ply route 126 (to Ngong). Our father begged her not to leave, but she chose a mabati house where the tout lived over my father’s bungalow,” Cindy told us, adding that her sister got three children with the man who later abandoned her in Kinangop where she lived with her mother in-law.

“Kinangop was too cold and so she developed some respiratory complications. She came back to Rongai and he started beating her up whenever she questioned why he was not providing for his family. One day he beat her to a pulp. He killed my sister.” 

Super girl syndrome

Some women think they have magical powers to change bad boys into altar boys. They just want to take them home, shave them, bathe them, dress them in a clean suit, and probably cut and file their nails. Mbonge Sazuri, a policeman gives an example of a woman who “would go to a bar up to midnight and then pass by a bus station when most buses were assembling to call it a day. She would pick a tout of her choice and go home with him. The man would show up the next day looking fresh.” Mbonge says he met the woman while patrolling the area.

 He owns the mathree

Some girls assume that a well-dressed makanga probably co-owns the matatu with the driver. That he collects all the money might also mean it all goes to his bank account, which is how they wrap an 18-year-old shagz-modo lass round their fingers.

“Women used to love me and mostly high school and college girls. I could easily buy them lunch, since I always had loose change with me. That’s the advantage of being a tout. You will never lack a shilling or two in your pocket,” explains Pius Wafula, a former tout turned accountant, on how easy it was to pick up girls when he was hanging on mathree doors.