Matatus

Matatus wait for passengers at Commercial terminus on Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi in September 2020. 

| File | Nation Media Group

Drive to shield women from abuse in matatus

What you need to know:

  • Studies stress that safety and security is a major concern for most female commuters in Nairobi.
  • Report highlighted the need for measures to protect female commuters from harassment.

At least five days a week, Mary Chege, 25, boards a bus from Luthuli Avenue in downtown Nairobi for her Ruiru residence.

The buses, she says, often play deafening music. If she asks the tout to turn down the volume, she gets a mean comment in response, which sparks demeaning laughter from other passengers.

The result is humiliation, and she resorts to using her index fingers to cover her ears as she tries to block the noise from hurting her eardrums.

However, if a man made the same request, the volume would be turned low at once. She has witnessed this before, she says.

On a good day, she sits next to a woman, and sometimes a man who knows how to fit his frame within the space available. On bad days, she finds herself beside a “manspreader”. When this happens, she has to squeeze herself or keep asking her seat-mate to keep his legs together. Women find themselves targets of annoying behaviour in other ways.

“When you give the tout a high-denomination note, you will have a hard time getting back your change. You will ask several times until you get annoyed, yet men are handed their change promptly,” she says.

“It’s very annoying. And then there are women with skimpy clothes for whom the front seats are reserved. I’ve watched them on various trips pay no fare, and their behaviour contributes to demeaning of women as a whole.”

“While calling for passengers, some touts also catcall us and make nasty comments about our bodies. It’s degrading and exhausting.”

Sexually charged comments

Ms Janet Mutua, 35, echoes this, saying, in Kasarani where she lives, touts make sexually charged comments towards women depending on how they are dressed.

“Some drivers make flirty comments when you sit beside them in the front, and when you decide to sit with other passengers, men will do the same, with some going as far as groping,” an annoyed Ms Mutua says.

Other commuters describe similarly bad experiences. Ms Joy Simiyu, 22, has one problem; there are no queues at the stage where she boards a bus home to Roysambu.

In the evenings, peak time for the public transport industry, Ms Simiyu has to scramble to get into the bus, and she often gets shoved aside as the physically stronger, most of them men, take advantage of their strength to board first.

Unlike the three, 32-year-old Loice Osuka prefers using the train. It’s cheaper, she says, even though comfort is not assured.

“The one I mostly use is the longer one that has seats and rails to hold onto if you are standing. The problem is that you end up sitting uncomfortably because you have to squeeze in with others, and when you stand, you will see people ogling your backside. Its uncomfortable and annoying,” she says.

“I once saw a pregnant woman standing, and gave my seat to her. It made me think that she was afraid of asking a sitting passenger to give her a seat, because she came in a bit late. Yet her situation could mean life and death for her and her child.”

These challenges have been captured in various reports that stress that safety and security in public transport is a major concern for most women in Nairobi.

A sexual harassment report released by the Kenya Youth Generation Equality Consortium last August revealed that 46 per cent of commuters are likely to experience sexual harassment at night as a result of the mode of transport they chose and the time they took it. Some 24 per cent believe they are more likely to experience or witness sexual harassment in the evening, while 15 per cent say afternoon and 13.8 per cent morning.

Slow response by law enforcers

A majority also said they are more likely to witness or experience sexual harassment or abuse in matatus, followed by digital taxi (21.57 per cent), boda boda (11.76 per cent) and train (5.88 per cent). 
Notably, matatus are also the most commonly used mode of transport in the study routes and hence the high ranking.

Unreported sexual harassment cases were attributed to lack of action by law enforcement officers, slow response by law enforcers, expenses required to report and fear of retaliation, lack of awareness of rights, a busy schedule and fear of stigma.

The most recent report, “Women and Public Transport in Nairobi”, released on December 15, was conducted and released by the UN Women Global Flagship Programme on gender data and statistics in partnership with Kenyatta University and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

It highlighted the need for measures to protect female commuters from continued victimisation or harassment by matatu conductors, stage marshals and fellow male passengers.

The report said more than 80 per cent of women in Nairobi have witnessed verbal and emotional abuse, yet only seven per cent of them reported the incidents.

Where abuse was reported, little or no action was taken against the perpetrators. Only one per cent of the actions taken after incidents of harassment led to the perpetrators being apprehended.

Commenting on this, Prof Judith Waudo, the Kenyatta University Women Economic Empowerment Hub leader, urged support for women commuters to enable them to report such incidents, as well as adequate legal and psychosocial support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in public transport.

“Harassment, including sexual and emotional abuse while using public transport, may hinder women from accessing and fully exploiting economic opportunities and from providing or enjoying social services,” said Ms Rukaya Mohammed, the UN Women deputy country representative in Kenya.

Gender mainstreaming in urban transport infrastructure and services, said Transport Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge, is important because women’s and men’s transport needs and use patterns are different.