LIFE OF A CAB DRIVER IN NAIROBI

LIFE OF A CAB DRIVER

By PAUL AMORU

Last month, a New York cab driver was honoured and hailed for taking an elderly couple on the longest taxi ride in the city's history.
Douglas Guldeniz drove the pair from Queens’ New York, to their retirement home in Arizona, a total of 2,500 miles.
The mammoth road-trip earned Guldeniz the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission's 'Going the Extra Mile' award. He was one of 60 other New Yorkers lauded for outstanding service.
This got me mulling over a lot of stuff - why the culture of rewarding hard work is still alien in Kenya. Except if you were probably the founding President.
In the culture that espouses excellence, even a sweeper, if he works diligently, goes down the books of history as an achiever.
It is thus intriguing that our social and political systems shun this cardinal principle – which is the epitome of human dignity.
Maybe Kenya is still poor and needs time to develop. But that has little to do with the principle of justice and fairness.
In any case, our very own city has over the years metamorphosed into one of the top world cities, rising from a brackish uninhabited swampland - to a thriving modern capital.
But it’s anybody’s guess why the city's infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the rapid growth.
The worst nightmare for motorists is the traffic, and it requires several lessons in patience and serenity to avoid developing stress or ulcers.
Despite the traffic menace that most of us conveniently crave to avoid, David Karanja, a cab driver in Nairobi has no escape.
Unlike our elites who bask away in the comfort of air-conditioned offices, it is on these rutted roads that David crafts a living for his family.
David resides in Maragwa -the present Muranga South with his wife Irene and their two-year-old daughter.
After three years behind the steering wheel, he is worn out but hopes to press on.
He had the advantage of pursuing a certificate course in Pharmacy at Nairobi Technical College after Form four.
But nothing like a job was forthcoming. “I could not find a job one year after college, so I did another course in driving,” he explains.
Hoping to pursue the career in pharmacy, which he studied in 2003 and close to two years later still jobless, David did not tire.
He approached K/REP bank for a loan of Sh20, 000 that he used to open a small drug shop upcountry.
The shop picked up in months and David was fast becoming a small village tycoon of sort at his rural home.
But uncertain of what was best for him; he was later to fall prey to some advice that is yet to work for him.
“A friend advised me to buy a car and join the taxi business in Nairobi, he said I would make more money,” he recalls sadly.
So David closes his shop, sells a few items from home and used all his savings to acquire a second hand Nissan Sanny, which he now rides on the muddled streets of Nairobi.
I took interest to find out the experiences of cab drivers and how they are managing.
A number of them like Moses who operates at Tuskys branch- rank - two was quick to inquire whether I could get for him a job at Nation.
Others were so indifferent and said they hate speaking to journalists. But I insisted and even asked about their families.
A number of those I talked to, are sole breadwinners at home. But their wives and children unfortunately spend several nights alone.
David says he has had a lot of troubles with his wife Irene regarding his job. Ranging from the time he gets to be home and strange calls he receives at night.
For example, he works for 24 hours before taking another 24 hours of rest. “But even when I go home I feel very tired and does not give my wife much time,” he confesses.
This is not going down well with David’s madam, even Moses and Harun Mbugua; another cab driver had a similar tale.
“You know, our customers are sometimes these malayas (sex workers),” says David, and he has a problem with them calling him even when off duty.
The sex workers call him right in the dead of the night and the phone lands in the hands of his wife.
“Hullo, hi darling, come pick me at Madhouse,” that is now the prostitute and guess what, it is David’s wife on the other side of the phone.
Putting David in an awkward spot of beginning to explain to the mother of his child, why she should no fret; “That is the nature my job, those malayas are just my customers and that is where I get the money to give you”, stuff like that.
But he says his explanations at times falls on deaf hear; “these women from shags (up country) don’t understand the language of sweetie,” he adds.
David has also been seeing a lot of crazy stuff at Florida F1 now nick named Madhouse.
He says it is common to find more than ten women in their early twenties fighting over one old “musungu” (white man).
He however feels that men who go to Madhouse must be very rich. “The sex workers charge Sh2000 for just one hour”.
Then the man will have to buy the beers, pay the cab and book a room. “You see, the common man cannot afford,” he adds.
But one episode David won’t forget in a hurry happened in August last year. “I was at Java house, on a Friday night,” he recalls.
Inviting me to sit in his car he narrated his tale that fateful night; he say two “Jamas” approached him to give them a ride to Kinoo – some place after Westlands.
He says Kinoo is usually not a safe destination at night, but he needed the money so could not resist the temptation.
The strangers he had for passengers remain silent all through the ride and it got David nervous, but little did he know they were scheming how to strike!
It was already 3:00am. In the dead of the night and all was quiet, the roads deserted but only him, with the strangers he called clients.
“Stop”, one of the Jamas yelped at him and in no minute, the other grabbed him by the collar leaving him helpless and pleading for mercy.
The next thing he remembers were a few heavy punches unleashed on his face.
David at this point was silently connected to his maker at least to accept his soul. But what bothered him was how his family would receive the news of my death the following morning.
The men took all he had including the phone and threw him out of the car.
“I don’t know where they wanted to go with my car, but God helped me and the car broke down, few meters from where they had dropped me,” he says.
David later restarted his car when it cooled and returned to town a big loser but at least with his dear life.
Harun Mbugua another cab driver at the 680 branch shared the same sentiments.
According to Harun, at least every week he hears of a carjacking incident and it recently happened to his friend who surprisingly he declined to name.
Harun has been in the taxi business for the last 18 years and he is married with four children.
Like David, he is unhappy with the traffic jam in Nairobi, which he believes is getting out of hand, and causing them unnecessary loses
Most of the cab drivers I talked to blame private cars for the jam in the city.
City officials estimate that the number of private cars registered in Nairobi has tripled in the past five years to nearly one million.
Taxis in Nairobi have no meters, and if you fail to negotiate earlier, you will be at the mercy of someone that needs to make their house-rent before dark.
A trip within the city centre and other locations vary with distance to be covered but cost around Sh200 -1000.

It’s been noised many a time how taxi drivers fall prey to unsuspecting ‘customers’. But many of these men and women will tell you that it is part of their daily operation.

The recent post election animosity was among the challenges they faced as drivers who earn from the public’s daily movement.

There was a decrease in the number of tourists and this put some of their colleagues out of employment.

But Michael Mungai 29 who operates at Norfolk hotel has his job to thank for the exposure he has acquired since he started driving his cabs.
‘I learn a lot and get to know a lot of places”, he says.

Steven Matheri 45, also operating at Norfolk Hotel has been a cab driver for 15 years. He operates with in Nairobi and has been at the city’s major hotels carrying tourists.

He regrets that there is no more monopoly of the market like it was 15 years ago
“New cars have come up and this takes away our market”, says Matheri.

The fact that he owns an old car means that there are fewer chances that he will be picked or given an assignment by a tourist from a hotel.

Regarding insecurity, he says, ‘we just carry on with our work amid the challenges, just like other jobs do have’.

Nairobi, also, has ‘cabs’ running on three tyres. The tri cycles, also known, as tuk tuks are relatively cheaper than cabs.

The explanation of the operators suggests that people just love the tuk tuks because they are relatively cheaper for a typical trip.

Their trips are with in Nairobi CBD and usually charge Sh100.