Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Why matatus are biggest corruption industry



The Underworld Team

It was the business of choice for many investors who wanted to try their hand in business, but matatu industry is becoming the biggest corruption industry in Kenya.
It has become a cash cow for traffic police officers even as it breeds criminal cartels that seek to control routes across the country.
Besides drivers and touts, the sector is a source of direct and indirect employment to people in garages, fuel stations, insurance companies and lately rogue traffic police officers and members of the cartels.
In Nyanza, this vibrant sector has been reduced to an unprofitable venture following a competition between traffic police, cartels and rowdy touts all seeking to milk matatu owners.
Most matatu owners who spoke to The Underworld narrated how they have been losing huge sums of money daily to these groups.
Biggest beneficiaries
Zachary Maroko who owned a matatu says he sold it off a year ago after realising it was only benefiting police and touts.
"I got frustrated after earnings sometimes dropped to Sh1,000 a day. To imagine that people who never owned a matatu earned more than the owner was too much to take. After I finished servicing the loan from my financier, I sold it off," says Maroko.
Indeed, during his recent visit to the region, Transport Licensing Board (TLB) chairman Hassan Ole Kamwaro described the region as the worst in flouting traffic rules compared to other parts of the country.
Matatus carrying excess passengers, some hanging dangerously, is commonplace in the region despite the numerous police checkpoints on all roads.
But matatu owners say they have been forced to do this to make more money to cater for bribes by traffic police officers and for paying criminals pretending to be touts along the routes.
The chairman of Matatu Welfare Association for vehicles operating in the Kisii-Etago route Mr Mekenye Okemwa says matatu owners are losing a lot to these groups.
"At the Kisii bus park, matatu touts charge Sh150 for ‘helping convince passengers to board your vehicle’ in every route. Usually, a matatu plying this route will make four round trips bringing the daily figure to Sh600 and Sh18,000 monthly," laments Mekenye.
There are about 40 matatus plying this route meaning touts at the Kisii bus park make up to Sh600,000 in a month from matatu owners, he notes.
Mekenye says this engagement has become so lucrative such that a number of drivers have opted to work as touts since each may make up to Sh1,200 a day.
Failure to pay the money attracts severe reprisals including being denied a chance to carry passengers.
Milking dry
At Kenyenya town, the same matatus pay Sh100 per route to touts bringing the monthly figure to Sh12,000. Smaller figures are paid to touts at Mogonga and Ogembo towns.
"Some of us are still servicing loans from our financiers and we are left with very little at the end of the day making this business unprofitable," says Mekenye.
Besides, he says every matatu has to bribe police at two checkpoints along the Kisii-Kilgoris route with at least Sh400 daily. One checkpoint is manned by traffic police from Kisii Central District while the other is manned by police from Gucha District.
Matatus plying the Kisii-Kericho route have to bribe traffic police officers at Kegati and Mochenwa checkpoints.
Drivers say the Kisii-Kisumu route is no better. At each of the seven police checkpoints, matatus have to fork out bribes in the morning session and also in the afternoon.
"You must pay the money whether you are carrying excess passengers or not. The traffic police officers carry small notebooks where they mark vehicles that have paid," says a conductor plying the route who asked not to be identified.
At some points, the officers openly receive bribes as passengers watch. After that, the matatus carry excess passengers freely throughout the day.
But for fear of being caught in the act by anti corruption officials, traffic police officers have devised new ways of receiving bribes.
At the Nyabioto checkpoint along the Kisii-Kilgoris route, matatus stop at a corner and the conductor alights, and takes a standby motorcycle taxi towards the police officers.
Using shortcuts
The conductor gives the bribe and registration details of the matatu before signalling the driver to proceed with the journey.
The officers will pretend to be busy chatting on the phone or reading a newspaper as the matatu, usually carrying excess passengers, passes through.
Boda boda operators have discovered the new scheme and they are now positioning themselves at strategic corners before and after police checkpoints to ferry touts to the police to offer bribes.
"I was ferrying timber in a truck to Migori a week ago. At one police checkpoint, a police officer literally jumped onto the bonnet of the truck when the loader hesitated and tried to give a Sh100 bribe. The officer demanded Sh200 before letting us through without even checking the consignment I was carrying," says John Omasire.
Touts who spoke to The Underworld maintain they are doing nothing illegal as they have to survive.
"We have families to feed and the government has not provided opportunities for employment. Not every one of us can work as a driver or conductor. Matatu owners benefit as we help fill their vehicles faster much as we benefit. The Sh150 they pay is divided among five or six of us so it is not much," says Mathews Onsase, a tout in Kisii town.

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