My experience with MatatusI travel a lot by public means and this given me a relative experience with this popular mode of transport. Today I was travelling from Nairobi to Nakuru and I happen to sit in the middle seat next to the driver. This is not my most preferred seating position; today I didn’t have the luxury of choice as I was it was on a Friday. Everyone who travels via road at least knows how crazy weekends are. The lady who sat next to me seemed more like a media personality or may be an anti-corruption officer. She was very quick to ignite a conversation between the driver and her. Since I was in the middle seat I sat quietly listening without giving my opinions and suggestions. Conversation getting hotterThe conversation started with how much matatu owners earns daily as compared to how they used to earn some years back before the government opened up the market. Previously due to tax related issues; matatu were owned by the rich in the society and the few poor people who could hustle their way to owning one could only own an old one. Today the old matatus are very few. Kshs 26 billion annually goes to wrong pocketsThe lady seemed wise and within no time the conversation was escalating to a whole new level. Police make a lot of money from the matatu industry and according to a report published by the star newspaper the traffic police pockets about 26 billion every year. According to Africa Uncensored the traffic police pockets Kshs 14.2 million a day in Nairobi alone. Every month in the 47 counties they collect up to 2.13 billion and this therefore amount to Kshs 26 billion annually. When the lady brought about this issue the driver seemed a little uncomfortable and he seemed cautious, probably he too, was questioning the credentials of the lady. The driver seemed a little bit resistant in answering the questions but the lady seemed too persistent to let any question go unanswered. What kshs 26 billion could doAccording to the driver, the police pockets more than Kshs 300 per vehicle and this makes the hike the fare a little bit to ensure that their daily catch remains constant. This therefore implies that if the traffic police could stop asking the matatu investors for that Kshs 50 or Kshs 100 every day the fare would go down significantly. Again if the figures above are anything to go by; the Kshs 26billion traffic police take home every year could be used to do a mega project. Have you ever imagined what Kshs 26 billion could do to your life? Ok then now figures out what kind of development that kind of money could do. It could construct a level 5 hospital with standard equipment or even build a road of more than 1200 kilometers as the cost of tarmac road per kilometer in Kenya is Kshs 20million. This means that if that money was channeled appropriately, then there could be no need of borrowing to construct roads and other important infrastructure. Who can kill corruption?Corruption is the cancer in the government of Kenya and if the economy of this great nation has to grow then we need to take Kenya to the theater and do away with the cancer once and for good. In case the operation fails to do us any good then we need to take Kenya for some chemotherapy. When it comes to corruption there are no smaller fish, they quickly graduate to bigger fish and within no time they grow wings and no one can tame them. We need a leader who is ready and willing to take Kenya to theater room, take this great nation for chemotherapy again and again until no traces of cancer of corruption are seen. For long we have ignored the matatu industry and despised it as insignicant corruption, I feel it’s time we open our two eyes and call a spade a spade.
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