Ben Byerly’s Blog: Locked up in a Kenyan jail
Friday 3:45 pm: my phone beeped with a new text: “Ben, can u get in touch with Kivanguli [NEGST’s Dean of Community Life]. I am being held at Karen Police station as an excess passenger.” Samy
Samy Tioye, one of my closest friends, is from Burkina Faso and is working on a PhD in translation...
...Friday afternoon, Samy made a quick trip into the shopping center at Karen (about 3 kms away), and was on his way home in one of Kenya’s infamous matatus (minivans used for public transportation). By way of background, Kenyan law says that a matatu can only carry a maximum of fourteen people that it has seats for. A few years ago, the government cracked down, but somehow the route coming past our school has been neglected and these matatus almost always carry excess passengers. It’s rare to find one that isn’t totally overcrowded; just about everyone I know – including me – has been forced to squat in the aisle or even hang out the open door of a matatu. It’s the rare matatu on this route that isn’t overloaded. But Friday, the police apparently decided to enforce the law, and poor Samy was one of those who hadn’t gotten a seat. (In Kenya, the passenger shares culpability along with the driver and conductor.)
This is what Samy had to say,...
It is a great story.
Asante Sana (as they say here in Kiswhahili.) When you linked to this story, I told Samy that he had made it into the big leagues. ;-).
Posted by: Ben | May 24, 2008 at 02:36 PM
LOL. Don't know if this is the big time but you related a wonderful story. Thanks!
Posted by: Michael W. Kruse | May 24, 2008 at 05:10 PM