The Matatu Argument

I don't know why matatu arguments always start over the smallest things, but this one started because a mama with three shopping bags sat down and the whole vehicle tilted like we were boarding a ship.

"Kwani hii gari ina low tyres?" someone at the back joked.

"Aki si it's her bags," another voice added, laughing.

The mama was not laughing. "Excuse me, mimi si mzito. It's just distribution."

And that word — distribution — did something to me. Because sio ata mzaha, that's literally my job. I spend my days thinking about how load is distributed, how too much weight on one point causes stress, how things that look fine can fail quietly if nobody checks the balance.

So there I was, squeezed between a man watching TikTok at full volume and a schoolboy who kept elbowing me for...