A young Kenyan man with a running stomach recently answered the call of nature in a Naivasha bound matatu (local word for commercial bus in Kenya) after his pleas for the vehicle to stop for him to relieve himself fell on deaf ears.
According to SDE, the absurdity last weekend left many mouths agape, with people wondering why some matatu crews are so rude.
"Though matatu crews hold the record for absurdities, but this one has transcended the boundaries," one of the passengers told crazy Monday.
According to the passengers on board, the young man who was sitting in the back seat asked the conductor of the matatu to have the driver stop the vehicle so that he could relieve himself to no avail.
Instead, to the chagrin of the passengers, the conductor pointed to a sticker on the window of the vehicle that read 'kupanda ni popote, kushuka ni stage' which loosely translated means 'passengers can board from any point but disembarking is strictly at the stage'.
Requests by other passengers who could not stand the foul smell any more fell on deaf ears too.
"I could not hold it anymore with all signs indicating their determination to keep going yet the pressure in my bowels was unbearable," said the beleaguered young man.
It is the foul smell that wafted from the back of the vehicle that prompted the rest of the passengers to shout at the driver to stop the vehicle or they would take the law into their own hands.
"Now look, the young man had messed himself up, making the entire vehicle inhabitable," said a lady who was sitting next to him.
In a fresh turn of events, after the vehicle had stopped en route to Naivasha, the driver and the conductor demanded that the young man pay to have the vehicle cleaned, arguing that he was old enough to control his bowels.
However, their assertion was not taken kindly by the other passengers who blamed the driver and his conductor for the eventuality.
"Have you ever had a running stomach?" an elderly woman asked the driver in a rather sarcastic tone.
"It can strike at any time, but instead of you stopping the vehicle you went on as if the young man made had no basis to ask you to stop," added the woman.
By now a crowd of curious on-lookers had gathered around the matatu to catch a glimpse of the drama.
One of them whose house was not far from the highway offered her bathroom for the young man to clean himself up.
"The crew should buy him new clothes or else we will report them to the authorities for violating this young man's human rights," said an on-looker, amid affirmation from the irate crowd.
The crew was also ordered to source an alternative vehicle to take the passengers to their destination at their expense.
"Let them learn the hard way," said an old man who was grazing by the road side. "They make travelling miserable at times," he concluded with a chuckle.
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