Nairobi, August 2, 2019. Collins Birage (25) is a Makanga, a conductor of a Matatu. He works in one of the hundreds of Matatus which are every day lining up while waiting for passangers in front of the Nairobi Railways Bus Station. Collins' goal is to get as many passengers as possible on his bus as quickly as possible. The more passengers the Makangas recruit, the more they earn. On average, a Makange earns about 2000 Kenyan Shillings a day, which is about 20 USD. The competition among the Matatus is enormous. 20000 - 40000 busses allegedly drive through Nairobi. Soon they will face even more competition. Currently a modern public transport system is being built in Nairobi. For the Matatu community this is only one more reason to become even more creative. They have already created a digital map of the Matatu lines and network with the mobile phone signals of the passengers, something that did not exist before. Now they think about digitalizing payment and electrifying the buses. Perhaps soon colorful and more eco-frendly Matatus will be whizzing through the Kenyan capital.
