Matatu work paid for my degree

Patrick Wainaina   PHOTO BY JENIPHER WACHIE

By Kiundu Waweru

Every year, thousands of students sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams. But of this number, only a handful gets to pursue tertiary education.

Many hang the boots of education at this juncture for myriad reasons; mostly an education system that favours the academically gifted, and lack of school fees.

Patrick Wainaina fell in the latter group. His KCSE exams in 2006 marked the end of an eventful four years of secondary school, with most of this time spent at home for lack of school fees.

“Attaining an aggregate grade of C- might seem dismal to some people, but to me, it was an achievement after all the hardship I had been through,” the 26-year-old says proudly.

However, continuing with his studies was out of the question: If secondary school fees had been an almost insurmountable task, how was the family going to afford college?

 It was, therefore, with great pleasure that Patrick welcomed an old friend back to their Gatanga Village in Thika. This friend had migrated to Nairobi a few years earlier in search of greener pastures, and by the look of him, things were going well.

“I wanted to know the secret of his success, and follow the same path to pull my family out of poverty,” Patrick says. “He told me he was a matatu driver, and I decided I also wanted to become one.”

A plan was hastily hatched, and a few weeks later, the Form Four leaver boarded a bus to Nairobi. But, as soon as he arrived in the confusing city of lights, Patrick mysteriously lost his prized, and with it the cell phone number of his old friend. His dream of learning to drive, and then getting a job as matatu driver, was only actualised in watching in wonder as the vehicles threw the rulebook out of the window.

He did not know another soul in Nairobi, so he joined a group of homeless boys; he became a chokora.

FORAGE

“We would forage for food and anything saleable in the Dandora dumping site. Our home and bed was on the pavements of a supermarket along Jogoo Road.”

Within a few months, Patrick had become used to life on the streets. But a chance encounter would change his lifestyle; he bumped into his old friend, the same one who had encouraged him to come to Nairobi.

The friend took him in, but Patrick admits that it took some effort to wean him off the street: “I was used to a rough way of life, and it was not easy to change.”

Afterwards, his friend introduced him to the touting business, and also took him for a driving course.

“Working as a tout is high strung, and comes with pressure from an unforgiving public, merciless traffic police officers and the ever present kanju.

“To cope with all this, my colleagues would indulge in alcohol. I soon joined in, because by now money was no problem, as I could earn Sh800 to Sh1,000 daily,” says the soft-spoken Patrick, who for the life of him, never found it easy to be rude with wathii, as matatu passengers are known.

All in all, life was good. But one day, as he went about his work, he bumped into a group of former classmates from Chania Boys High School.

“All of them were in college, and naturally, they asked me what and where I was studying.”

After this conversation, Patrick did some hard thinking about his life, and the future. Did he want to be a makanga forever, making daily wages which most ended up in drink?

He decided to go to college.

This was an unpopular decision, as many people in his line of work do not care about education. Others have had tertiary schooling, but lack formal jobs.

The search for a college ended at the Railways Technical Institute, where he studied for a diploma in Personnel Management. After graduation, he thought it would be easy to get a job, but this was not the case.

“I was turned down numerous times for lack of a degree. It seemed that my fellow touts, who always taunted me saying studying was futile, were right after all.”

While in college, Patrick had moved from Kayole to Mwiki to be away from his drinking buddies. He gave up alcohol, and started attending church religiously. His focus was on saving whatever he earned to pay his school fees.

After the diploma, it was tempting to go back to his old ways, but Patrick resolved to blocked out his colleagues’ dissenting voices and get a degree. He chose to study Business Administration at St Paul’s University’s Nairobi Campus.

Fellow students fondly referred to him as the makanga, and took it in stride. After all, the job was paying for his studies.

But it was not easy balancing work and school. Initially, he took the day class, from 9am to 1pm, before hurriedly tracing his matatu plying the 19/60, Kayole to the city centre, route.

“I would wake up at 3am and work until 9am, when I would go to campus. After class, I went back to work until closing time; 11pm.”

Patrick’s first employer was not comfortable with this arrangement, and he was sacked.

CHALLENGES

Later, he switched to working from dawn until 5pm, then going for the evening class, from 5.30pm to 8pm. After class, he would go back to his matatu, until 11pm.

He graduated in October, and his hard work and determination were not in vain; he was contracted by the university as the administration coordinator, following a successful internship.

Looking at him, smartly dressed as he goes about his duties, it is impossible to tell the odds he has faced.

Incredibly, even after getting the 8am to 5pm job at the university, Patrick still works in a matatu.

“I have had personal and family challenges that have left me in debt,” he explains. “I must pay up the only way I know how.”

So, at 3am, Patrick is in his beloved matatu, where he doubles up as a driver. Then, at 8am, he reports at the office desk, all smiles.

He also works over the weekend, and is left with hardly any time for social life; not even the time to find a wife. But he says it is not yet time to get married.

So, what drives him? “Life is not hard if you trust in God. Also, learn to manage your time and do not waste even a single minute. With determination and hard work, one can change their circumstance, no matter how bleak.”