These flashy taxi buses are all over Kenya, and they come with a dark past

Wikipedia Commons

• Kenyan taxi buses, or "matatus," are all over Nairobi and outlying cities.
• They're privately owned and decorated both inside and out, and their low cost makes them extremely popular for getting around.
• However, they've carried a reputation for violence and harassment for decades.

All around Kenya, plumes of black smoke get coughed from the tailpipes of colorful mutatus, the privately-owned taxi buses that ferry people around the city and suburbs.

For around $0.20 a ride, passengers can step inside a flashy bus or truck blaring rhythm-heavy music, and cram into a hot, muggy seat surrounded by a dozen other people. On a busy day, someone might be hanging onto the back.

Mutatus have spent the better part of the last several decades building up (and then trying to shed) a reputation for violence and harassment of passengers. And today, as Kenya's government tries to eliminate mutatus in favor of larger, more efficient buses, the old-school transport method is on the verge of extinction.

Here's what they're all about.