Photo Courtesy of OkayKnits' via Flickr

There was a traffic jam about 6 kilometers long and barely moving on the two way, one lane road. When the matatu driver couldhandle the waiting no more, he roared into the lane meant for cars traveling inthe opposite direction. I see this every day but as I still haven`t bought a car and traffic police are interested only when they want to be, I shut my eyes tight and hope to get where I am going.

Today, I opened my eyes just in time to see the car at the head of oncoming traffic brake to a halt, just in time to allow our matatu to swerve just inches shy of the bush. In the process, the matatu driver grazed the other vehicle's front fender and badly scratched his own car. When he managed to right the matatu, he got out swearingat the other driver, at which point he noticed that she was a woman. The lightskinned lady watched in perplexed surprise as the matatu driver heaped abuse on her for being a woman driver and not having the capacity to reason that he wasin a hurry therefore make room for him to violate traffic rules. What could she have done to avoid his maniacal driving?

I was not very heroic today so I did not say a word. But another lady spoke up; pointingout that the matatu driver was at fault. A man countered her, echoing the words of the matatu driver. The matatu conductor however stepped in defense of women, and for that was left behind when the matatu driver jumped back into his matatuand drove off, with whoever had stayed inside, or whoever managed to jump back in.

The matatu did a few more dangerous turns and skids, convincing me that I have to buy my own car - or give in and marry that guy who owns a car and drives safely. That's still not a failsafe plan; back to the matatu driver.

As we turnedthe corner from Uhuru Highway into Haile Selassie Avenue, a young pregnant lady stood up. Don't forget, we did not have a conductor, so the lady had to hollerand someone else had to echo her call for the driver to stop at the Agip bus stop. The matatu driver just drove on, and when the women pleaded with him to let them off, he cursed at them, asking why they did not tell him earlier on. Dumbfounded everyone in the matatu watched as he sped off all the way to the Railways Bus Terminal, grounding to a halt so sudden that the pregnant woman was shot to the front then the back with so much force I was surprised she did not pop.

While everyone else shook with rage, trying to help the young pregnant lady who seemed to be in pain, a young man promptly took the matatu`s registration number, and walked straight to a policeman and reported the driver. I have continually had my faith in the Police built up then steadily eroded. But I watched with satisfaction when the matatu driver was arrested, and taken into custody, at least for a while.

I left the scene, hoping that I would find more civilized minds where I was going. And there I was far from matatus, listening to a conversation about the weird thinking processes of women.

I tried to shut them out but soon enough I was myself mulling over the extreme conclusions people were making over an incident that was primarily about a bad matatu driver; are all women irrational? And I wondered what matatus and matatu culture would be like if matatu drivers were primarily women?