A growing community of people in Nairobi is reclaiming the city’s bus culture using new practices, art and social media to combat negative stereotypes.
Written, photographed and filmed for The New York Times.
Sheriff Safania Maina, the conductor on Woodini, swinging his legs up in a stunt.
“This is my office,” he said. Death-defying stunts are part of the job.
High school students about to board Woodini. Matatus have transported at least 60 percent of Nairobi’s population since the early ‘60s.
Passengers on Woodini wait for the bus to fill before starting the journey.
Daytime traffic in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
Raymond Aquinas, a matatu conductor, calls for passengers in Nairobi’s central business district.
Alex Kiki, matatu conductor on Iggy, hangs out with the other conductor while waiting for the vehicle to fill up with passengers.
The writer’s favorite matatu, Scooby Doo. Painted neon pink, the vehicle has a fluffy Scooby Doo doll hanging on the dashboard.
Anna Mugure, one of the only female matatu drivers, steers Revolt, a bus covered in graffiti of revolutionary leaders like Malcolm X and Che Guevara.
“I can match any man on the road driving,” she said.
Today, a growing number of young people in Nairobi have been trying to rebrand matatu culture, once seen as dangerous and reckless, through polite manners, art and social media.
Brian Wanyama, founder of Matwana Matatu Culture, a social media campaign at Nairobi Design Week that promotes and preserves the industry by sharing photos of designs online, honesting award ceremonies that celebrate the vehicles and their crews and championing road safety practices.
“Matatus connect everyone,” he said.
Roy Johnson Mungai in front of Woodini, which he designed and owns.
“My friends say I treat it like it’s my baby,” he said.
Interior details of Kanambo 2. It pays to have the most elaborate matatu in town: the better-designed vehicles can charge up to three times as much as plain ones.
A matatu conductor hangs out of the vehicle, whistling and calling for passengers to hop on.
A matatu whizzes by in Nairobi.