[SIZE=4]Confessions of a taxi driver: Six shocking encounters Nairobi taxi drivers have to deal with[/SIZE]
By Felix Kavii | Friday, Nov 20th 2015 at 14:39
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A young man and his female partner approached him as he parked his car next to the busy Simmers Club. It was late into the night and the pair was visibly drunk.
“Taxi” the man inquired, with the lady clinging to his arm.
“Yes,” the taxi driver responded, before opening the back door and ushering the two in.
As soon as they jumped in, they started making out even before the taxi driver could ask them where they wanted him to drop them.
“Take us to River Road,” the guy who looked like a foreigner responded, before recoiling back to the sexual indulgence. It was a very uneasy moment. Within no time, all the taxi driver could hear was moans and groans as the two started to lustfully tear into each other. It was not the first time he was experiencing this with a client. In fact, it is part of his everyday experience.
“Hey guys, I will have to charge you for that. This is not a room for lodging,” the taxi driver casually told them. He pulled the car to the roadside and demanded that they pay an additional Sh1,500 for their guilty pleasures.
Unperturbed, the guy pulled out Sh2,000 from his wallet and begged the taxi driver to just excuse them for ten minutes so that they can finish their steamy pleasure. He stepped out. It was a really short affair. They never even got to River Road. Within another fifteen minutes, it was “Mission Accomplished” and now they wanted him to take them back to the club. He had made his cash, the taxi drivers’ nightlife way!
“I go through this every night. It is normal for people up to walk to me asking me to let them use my car for a ‘quickie’. I usually charge them some little cash and let them go ahead. It becomes an issue when they get caught romping away in the car by the police because it is illegal. I usually stand at a little distance, just to watch over them,” says the taxi driver.
Just like the night watchman, taxi drivers keep the dark secrets of the night life. They have seen it all. From near-death threats to their lives through to attending to clients who refuse to pay up, taxi drivers can tell tales that would leave anyone shocked.
They are strangers who people have learned to trust. The nature of their job makes them as trusted in those wee hours as men of cloth. Picture this; you have been hanging out in the club until 4am and now, sloshed as you are, you want to go home.
You have all your valuables- from your phones to the ATM cards and cash in your wallet- with you and as soon as you tell the taxi driver your destination, you slide into slumber at the back of the taxi, leaving your life entrusted to this stranger. The next thing you know is the taxi driver waking you up to tell you that you have arrived. So you alight, leaving to go get drunk and hopefully trust another stranger, another day.
Cases of rogue taxi drivers are not totally unheard of. Alongside the good guys, there are rapists, abductors and robbers who masquerade as innocent drivers and lurk in the dark, lying in wait for unsuspecting prey.
Not so long ago, a university girl who had been hanging out with her friends sought the services of a taxi driver who abducted her as he drove off to Ngong forest where he and his friends gang-raped her and left her for dead.
After abandoning her on the road side, she was saved by a Good Samaritan in the chilly early morning hours, who rushed her to Nairobi Women’s hospital for medical attention. The traumatic experience has made her give up all trust on taxi drivers.
We at Pulse magazine have been on the prowl, investigating the night life of a taxi driver and here are some of the confessions of the ones we interviewed.
Case 1: Kamau picks up a popular politician with his clandestine women. Kamau, who operates his taxi around Nairobi’s CBD says that he picked a well-known rowdy politician from a city pub in town and took him and his clande to her home in Kitisuru. At the back seat, Mr Politician was shouting, kissing his woman and Kamau had to stop the car a few kilometres from Kitisuru for the couple to fulfil their sensual cravings before driving on to the house.
Despite his advanced age, the politician is used to using the services of the taxi guy to collect young girls, some as young as 19. He pays Kamau handsomely for the services and they have unwritten rules that Kamau should never reveal all these to anyone.