PART 1: THE MATATU KINGIn the mid-2010s, before his 40th birthday, Mike Mbuvi Gidion Kioko Sonko straddled Nairobi's Eastlands like a colossus; a king and his bulging fiefdom. These all plied route number 58, operating between downtown Nairobi and Buru Buru shopping centre, a busily congested hub populated with pubs, hypermarkets and discotheques. Mbuvi even added a double-decker bus to his fleet, affording Buru Buru residents a lofty view as they traversed their city. After a month behind bars, he feigned illness and was admitted at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, from where he vanished on April 16, 1998, only to reappear in Buru Buru. This meant that whenever Mbuvi’s nganyas got to downtown Nairobi, they skipped the queue, filled up instantly and turned around.

Source: The Star August 18, 2021 02:00 UTC