Buses · Vans · Minibuses
Matatu is where owners list what they run, take hire requests from trip organisers and travellers, and get paid straight to their own account — minus Pamoja’s 5%, and nothing else.
Listing is free · Paid straight to your own account · Joining is by invitation
The problem
Someone rings about a Saturday hire out of Nairobi. You agree a fare, hold the date in your head, and hope the deposit lands. There is no record of what was agreed, no way to see which of your vehicles is committed on which day, and no statement at the end of the month that ties a paid fare to the trip it came from.
How it works
its seats decide how many people can book it. Nothing is public until you activate it, and until your payout account is set up, because a listed vehicle has to be payable.
the range a hire of that vehicle usually costs. Travellers see it before they ask, so nobody requests a bus with no idea what a bus costs. It does not limit what you quote.
a trip organiser or traveller asks for a date. You quote the fare when you accept: you set the price, every time, and it can be above or below your estimate. You have 24 hours to answer before the request expires and they go elsewhere.
they pay by card or M-Pesa. The fare settles to your own account, less Pamoja’s 5%, and lands on your earnings ledger.
This is the product
Not a mock-up. These are the request inbox and the earnings ledger as Matatu renders them, with figures that reconcile — a KES 45,000 hire, and a month that adds up.
The request inbox · /requests
Sat, 5 Dec 2026 · 14 seats · from a Pamoja trip organiser
The earnings ledger · /payouts
Before the payment processing fee — you bear it as the merchant of record for your own sale.
KCB 442K · 33-seater
Wanjiru Kamau · Nairobi → Naivasha · Sat, 21 Nov 2026
Fare KES 45,000 · Pamoja 5% KES 2,250 · You earned ≈ KES 42,750 · M-Pesa · Paid 17 Sept 2026
KCB 442K · 33-seater
Achieng Otieno · Nairobi → Nakuru · Sat, 7 Nov 2026
Fare KES 32,000 · Pamoja 5% KES 1,600 · You earned ≈ KES 30,400 · Card · Paid 9 Sept 2026
KDA 118M · 14-seater
Cheruto Langat · Nairobi → Ngong Hills · Fri, 23 Oct 2026
Fare KES 18,000 · Pamoja 5% KES 900 · You earned ≈ KES 17,100 · M-Pesa · Paid 25 Aug 2026
What you get
hire requests from trip organisers and from Kimoja experiences arrive in the same place, tagged with where they came from.
nothing is priced for you. You quote when you accept, and the customer sees that figure.
fares settle to your subaccount through the split. Pamoja never holds your money and only ever takes its 5%.
every paid hire, with the fare, the commission that was actually charged, and what you netted.
a vehicle’s seat count decides how many people can book it, enforced at payment.
activate and deactivate any vehicle yourself. Nothing is public until you say so.
How the money works
The fare you quote is the fare the customer pays. Pamoja’s 5% comes out of it, not on top of it, and the rest settles into your own account. You bear the payment processing fee, because you are the merchant of record for your own sale.
Also on Pamoja
Questions
Matatu is invite-only while it is young. If you run vehicles and want in, get in touch. There is no sign-up form here yet, and we would rather say so than show you one that cannot work.
You do, every time, at the moment you accept a request. Nothing is priced for you.
It tells a traveller roughly what your vehicle costs so they can decide whether to ask at all. It is shown as an estimate and it does not limit what you quote — your firm fare is whatever you name on accept.
It expires after 24 hours and the traveller is told to try another vehicle. That is deliberate: nobody should be left waiting on a hire that is never coming.
The fare settles to your own account when the customer pays, less Pamoja’s 5%. Pamoja never holds it.
Nothing. Listing vehicles and receiving requests is free; Pamoja only earns when you do.
From trip organisers using Pamoja, from travellers browsing here, and from Kimoja experiences that need a vehicle. They all land in the same inbox.