Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 8-11 July 2013 "Transport and Sustainable Infrastructure", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
Matatu transport which is a form of paratransit in Kenya provides employment directly and
indirectly to institutions and individuals. The sector mainly offers direct employment to drivers and conductors. These two are conceptualised to constitute paratransit labour.
Indirectly, it offers work to vehicle assemblers; graphic designers; mechanics; insurance
companies and petrol stations. Unlike previous studies which were based on a quantitative
methodology, this paper takes a qualitative approach from the perspective of paratransit
owners in an effort to explore how the terms of employment of paratransit labour affect
regulatory compliance. The findings demonstrate the terms of employment such as the job
responsibilities i.e. the minimum target and customer relations; working hours and breaks;
and remuneration affect how paratransit labour behaves and interacts with other road
users by increasing ridership through competitive behaviour that leads to violation of traffic
regulations. Efforts by Government to enhance paratransit labour regulatory compliance
should not focus on introducing tougher penalties but addressing the problem of corruption
by traffic police and target setting by owners.
