Did you ever wonder how Kenya's famous matatu routes began? Kenya's colorful and ever present public transit vans and small buses also known as "matatus" have a colorful and creative history.
Kenya Bus Service, the country's first official public transit system began operations in 1934. In the beginning there were only 12 bus routes. The original taxis that became known as matatus were small vehicles owned by private individuals who saw a business opportunity in supplementing service on KBS routes. In fact it was rumored that they got their name because the were supposed to only hold three people, however this quickly evolved into much numbers that were perhaps divisible by three.
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| A manyanga called "Rockstar" in Rongai |
Everything comes full circle and some matatus are now as big as the buses they replaced. Known as "
manyangas", the new large sized matatus are 30 seaters with the same colorful art design and catchy names as smaller matatus. Manyangas however have the old KBS buses beat by far in terms of comfort.
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