matatu
noun
minibus used for public transport in Kenya.
Used in Kenya for a passenger minibus.
Origins
One account links the name to the Kikuyu word for “three,” recalling a fare of three ten-cent coins. Other accounts differ on both the language and the amount paid.
Sources3
Williams College, Moving People and the Economy (Williams College, 2017), Fall 2017, paragraph beginning Matatu.
Documents the Kenyan passenger-minibus meaning.
Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi (University of Chicago Press, 2017), Introduction.
Links the name to Kikuyu three and a fare of three ten-cent coins. The same author’s 2006 article gives a different language and amount.
Kenda Mutongi, Thugs or Entrepreneurs? Perceptions of Matatu Operators in Nairobi, 1970 to the Present (Africa, volume 76, issue 4, 2006), A Brief History of Matatus; pp. 549–568.
Gives Swahili three and a three-cent fare. Retained to show the conflict with the author’s 2017 account; not independent corroboration.
Examples
Matatu ya kwenda mjini iko wapi?
Where's the matatu to town?
Nilipanda matatu asubuhi.
I took a matatu this morning.
Matatu hii inaenda Westlands?
Does this matatu go to Westlands?
Nauli ya matatu ni shilingi hamsini.
The matatu fare is fifty shillings.
Matatu imejaa, tusubiri nyingine.
The matatu is full, let's wait for another one.
Nilishuka kwenye matatu kituo kimoja mapema.
I got off the matatu one stop early.
Matatu zinaanza safari mapema sana.
Matatus start running very early.
Muziki ndani ya matatu ulikuwa mkali sana.
The music in the matatu was really loud.
Kondakta wa matatu alinipa chenji.
The matatu conductor gave me my change.
