Passengers in a matatu plying the Jogoo road route in Nairobi were on Saturday treated to a horrifying scene after witnessing one Benson Kinyanjui whom many refer to as Babayo falling from a speeding matatu.
Kinyanjui works as a conductor for a matatu belonging to Utimo Sacco. On Saturday, he left passengers in shock when he started dishing out the money he collected to passersby. A number of the passengers who warned him against sitting at the door while the vehicle was moving pleaded with the driver to top the vehicle.
"We just saw a man falling from the moving matatu. There were screams from the passengers as they pleaded to have the vehicle stopped. We noticed it was the conductor," a roadside trader narrated to Kenyans.co.ke.
According Mr Kinyanjui's colleagues, he had been drunk for the better part of Madaraka Day and woke up to work but could still sneak from their pick up point along Mfangano Street to consume some more alcohol on Saturday afternoon.
Passengers had complained that Kinyanjui could not even declare how much bus-fare he charged at the time as he kept drifting from an amount to another with some paying between 40 and a hundred shillings.
One of the matatu drivers we spoke to revealed that most of the assistants attached to them are drunk, usually assigned randomly to the matatu. He cited Mr Kinyanjui as a notorious one who never heeds his seniors advice to quit drinking while at work.
"We all can drink the way we want but Babayo goes to the extreme. We always ask him not to drink heavily as has often been the case. He was extremely lucky that the road was not busy as usual, or else an oncoming vehicle could have run over him," decried a driver, who insisted we do not name him.
[caption caption="A matatu belonging to Utimo Sacco "]
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Whe contacted on phone, the injured driver admitted to being in pain after sustaining injuries on his limbs and on the head. His driver dropped him at Donholm area where he assigned a friend to take him to hospital.
"I am recovering but my arms were badly hurt. I head hit the road from the back and the cap I was wearing got torn and soiled with blood. Were the the passengers driven home safe?" asked Kinyanjui in an ailing tone.
We could not immediately contact the Utimo Matatu Sacco management for a comment on the conduct of their staff as the managements's contacts could not go through.
