Public transport: Matatus

<!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

Speeding around Kampala (and indeed the whole country, or maybe even the continent. At least I see them in Rwanda and Tanzania (called dala dalas) also) with little regard of traffic rules and human safety, are the mini-buses called matatus or taxis. Goes to most places in the city for a cheap price (less than 50 cents), they are officially public transport. The one we usually take back to the hostel even had a number: 800 – Kikoni, Makerere. Most have their end station in the city centre, congregating in the new or old taxi park (the old taxi park is like a sea of matatus, it’s a small wonder that we finally learnt how to find our matatu).

On about half of them, you can see peeling Japanese writing, evidence that they are mostly imported old trucks. It seems like they haven’t been fixed since being imported, often you find a thick black smoke following them around.

When walking on the side of roads, you get a cacophony of honks and beeps, telling you a matatu or boda boda (more next time) is coming and wants you to get on. I have yet to figure out how the locals know which matatu is going where….sometimes the door guarding/money collecting person (conductor) shouts out the destination, but most of the time the people just flag them down and get on without asking. Tell the conductor “stage” if you want to get off.

Legally only 14 people (including driver and door guarding person) can get on, but as you can guess most of the time, it’s at least 16. One time in Mbale, we had a 8 person matatu with 16 people seated inside, go figure.