Remember this song?! “Matatu driver keep your eyes off my body… matatu driver keep your eyes on the road… matatu driver won’t you take it slowly!’ Boy! Haven’t we come far and especially one Jimmy “Jam Jimmy Jam-a-delic” Gathu! LOL! Anyway, that being the only lighter note of the post…

Today I was really frustrated with the Matatu driver who was taking me to Kawangware (where I interconnect to take a 48 to ABC Place via James Gichuru) because the guy was constantly on the phone, and since he was unable to multitask… he would stop the car smack in the middle of the road or while overtaking to finish up his conversation. At some point the poor guy was so distracted that he took a long cut instead of a short one and chewed into the minutes that determine how late I was going to be at work! It reached a point that he stopped the car in the middle of trying to cut into traffic subsequently getting us harassed by not one but two Citi Hoppers and a tirade of personal cars!

Isn’t this guy supposed to be on the phone, honking at other cars, climbing up the curb, skiving police, warning other Mats, at the same time darting the fly mama next to him… and getting me to my destination safe & in time!? Basically the reason I pay that public fare is because the guy is my multi tasking chauffeur! Anyway this got me thinking about how when you are in a Matatu and you are late the more wreckless the driver the better for you because all that curb climbing, 10th lane creating tactics are things you wouldn’t do in your personal car… therefore in a way it works well for you when you are being forcibly driven to your destination.

However, when driving your own car and stuck in a jam, a Matatu driver isn’t your BFF at the time as they manage to make your blood pressure rise, and all (if any) intelligent words cease to come out of your mouth and are usually replace with smaller lettered words with more impact in getting your face punched by the same Mat driver, save for the fact he is working hard to get me to work on time.