One of the best ways to get around Nairobi (or Kenya for that matter) is via matatu – 15-passenger vans that run different routes throughout the city. Within Nairobi, rides can be as cheap at 10KSH (~$.13), and they can get into the hundreds of shillings for trips outside the city. Yes, they’re crowded, often noisy, sometimes smelly, and occasionally reckless, but they are also quite the bargain and can be pretty fun to ride, too.

That being said, when you start talking to fellow matatu riders (especially foreigners), you realize there are some standard matatu scams that thieves will try to use to get your valuables. I’m compiling a list of the ones I know of in hopes that I might save some potential victim the frustration of losing a bag, wallet, etc. Comment if you know of any more scams to add.

“Police Check Seatbelt” Scam
I have had this attempted on me multiple times. You’re riding along and someone behind you taps you on the shoulder and says there’s a police check up ahead and you need to put your seatbelt on. In the commotion, someone will “help” you put your seatbelt on by reaching at your side and pulling something from your bag or pocket. I’ve heard of people losing purses, wallets and even laptops during this scam.

“I Dropped My Change” Scam
I’ve only had this attempted on me once, but I’ve talked to others who’ve been duped by this. Someone behind you will tap your shoulder and tell you they dropped their change and it’s on the floor by you. When you bend over to look, they’ll lean over the seat and grab something from your bag or pocket.

“Squeeze Past Me” Scam
When you get to your stop, one of the riders between you and the door will just turn to the side and allow you to squeeze by instead of getting out of the matatu completely. Now while many passengers will do this because they’re too lazy to get out of the matatu, some will want you to squeeze by so they can quickly dig into your pockets without you noticing the contact. I’ll admit I had my wallet taken from my side pocket on one of my first matatu rides by the guy sitting next to me whom I had to climb over to get out.

“Big Envelope/Bag” Scam
If you get on a matatu and a few seconds later someone gets on after you, sits next to you, and places a large envelope or bag on his/her lap, then watch out. They’ll spread the envelope/bag over your leg and then use the cover to investigate your bag or pockets.

“Pass the Fare” Scam
Because the tout can’t reach every passenger to collect their fares, if you’re sitting in the very back or front, you’ll often have to pass your fare to someone else to get to the tout. While this has never happened to me, I met someone who passed a 200KSH bill to the person in front of them, and then watched that rider immediately hop off with her fare.

Thanks to Melissa and Brian for putting this together.

Scams happen in matatus everyday. Have you ever experienced a carjacking or a matatu pickpocketing scam? What’s your story? Hit us up in the comments. Did we miss any scams?

Also, let us know what ways you normally stay safe, we’ll be posting 5 Ways to stay safe in Matatus tomorrow as well.

We can’t get over this Youtube parody of Jay-Z’s “New York State of Mind” by the guys over at Grasshopper.

And who knows, you may just hear an announcement from us on that “VC Money is braaaand new” tip. Or when we land on the front page of TechCrunch or Mashable

Enjoy. Have yourself a great week.

If we haven’t connected yet, you can find us on Twitter (don’t forget to use our hashtag - #GotIssuez too) and join us on Facebook too.

We’ve currently got a Safaricom Modem and an Uchumi Voucher up for grabs in The Gift Gallery so you can go ahead and grab yours on GotIssuez if you’d like.

New Dork State of Mind

We mentioned how our CCO, Mark Kaigwa gave a talk and represented GotIssuez at Africa Gathering and shared the slides with you too. Now you can see the talk for yourself thanks to the guys at Africa Gathering!

2010’s going to be a big year for us with so many great things lined up. We hope that you’ll join us in shaping the future of the web in Kenya and in East Africa this year.

Do let us know your thoughts and any ways you think we can get more Africans to believe in change.

Mark Kaigwa – Got Issuez from Africa Gathering on Vimeo.

Mark Kaigwa, Head of Communications and Anthony Mwangi Head of Research & Development represented the Gotissuez Team at Africa Gathering in Nairobi (of which there’s a great live blog by Erik over at White African of Day 1 and Day 2 of all the speakers and proceedings)

Africa Gathering provides a space to bring technophiles, thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators and everybody else together to talk about positive change in sustainable development, technology, social networking, health, education, environment and good governance in Africa.

The first Africa Gathering conference in Kenya was held at the British Council in Nairobi on the 21st & 22nd of December 2009. Mark Kaigwa gave the talk How do you get an African to believe in change?

Mark’s talk looked at Customer Service in Africa and how Gotissuez is bridging the gap between consumers and companies. Using the question “How do you get an African to believe in change” Mark made the case that African’s have been let down by the integrity of systems that bring about change such as the ballot box and the electoral process, so how can they expect change from a suggestion box or from a company?

As much as Africa has been known as the ‘Dark continent’ he responded that it isn’t what people say about Africans, but what Africans say and think of themselves. He went on to pose the question to whether Africa is a ‘deaf continent’, with so much said and so many broken promises, dead aid and rhetoric are Africans tired of listening and is that reflected in how companies offer customer service?

He then made the case for the Gotissuez approach that creates a community of problem reporters, thinkers and problem solvers and evolves a culture of reporting and resolving issues. The hope then, is that by also involving companies in the process, we will have an outcome where we can change circumstances for all. In closing, he remarked.

How do you get an African to believe in change? You get to them to participate in change.

His presentation is below:

One year ago a basic gotissuez site was launched and the team behind the website developed a liking for innovative ideas to further enhance the gotissuez cause. Alot has happened during the year:-

• The GI team swelled, we were joined by Mark Kaigwa, and he has been very key and has contribute hugely to gotissuez, not to forget his people skills which is out of this world.
• We launched a few modules and functionalities which include a mobile version, a ‘me too’ button, redesigned website, the gift gallery amongst others.
• Social media interagrations – created a twitter, facebook and tumblr account and using their API to connect with our users in these platforms….not to forget our blog as well

The first year has been highly succesful and look forward to an even more successful 2010.

We got a mention over at John Karanja’s blog, where he gave his thoughts on GotIssuez. In other amazing news, we’re moving over to Media Temple, we’re working out the details, so it will all come together really soon.

We appreciate you hanging in there. Our Head of Marketing Mark Kaigwa is also going to be speaking about GotIssuez at AfricaGathering in Nairobi at the Laico Regency on December 21/22nd. We’re really excited about that and looking forward to it. If you’d like to attend you can book your tickets here and see the line-up of amazing speakers set to grace the event. We consider it a huge opportunity, and hope to make the most of it.

We’ve also added a How It Works Page to GotIssuez, and we hope you’ve already seen our About Page to know what we’re all about.

You ought to be following us on Twitter already! Don’t forget to fan us on Facebook!

More pics and posts soon after we make the big move.

Gotissuez integrates with twitter

As gotissuez being viral has been a key part of our strategy more so that we can collect issues from the different social media platforms. Last week Gotissuez.com was fully integrated with twitter and issuez can now be collected directly from twitter. This has been a functionality we’ve been testing for a while now and we are glad to have finally launched it. All issuez with the #gotissuez hashtag can now be indexed on the gotissuez website. The integration was particularly important for us because it enables us to store the tweets in our database hence twitter’s 14 day expiry period doesnt apply.
Gotissuez has also been integrated with tumblr and facebook so as to collect issues and reaction to issuez from the two social networking websites.

We are constantly coming up with new ideas on gotissuez and many more features are in the pipeline, innovation and creativity are some of the pillars of Gotissuez, plus the determination of the G.I Team.

The recently held Africa Gathering Conference in London saw GotIssuez get a positive mention by Teddy Ruge of Project Diaspora.

An overview of Teddy’s talk is available at ICT4D.at below.

It sets the tone for GotIssuez to make a talk soon at the forthcoming AfricaGathering Conference in Nairobi in December. It will be the first time the AG conference comes to Africa.

About Africa Gathering:

Africa Gathering brings technophiles, thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators and everybody else together to talk about positive change in sustainable development, technology, social networking, health, education, environment and good governance in Africa.

We’re excited and looking forward and appreciate the mention!

GiTeam

Guys,

We’re really stoked to declare we’ve been shortlisted as a Top Tech Startup in Africa for 2009 on TechMasai.Com

Many thanks to Munashe at TechMasai and to Erik over at WhiteAfrican for the support.

We’re proud to be on the list and we’ll keep on keeping on!

Erik over at WhiteAfrican.Com gave us a mention in his post GotIssuez – Exposing Bad Customer Service in Kenya

Though it did spark some debate with the issue in question – on the Lions Project which drew the focus away from GotIssuez to a distasteful post (which the community itself spoke on soon after)

GotIssuez had this to say:

Every so often, we get posts that are way off the mark. It’s the nature of new members adapting to the website. Whether its new users, or people still getting around to the concept of GotIssuez. When this happens, usually their issues get flagged as ‘Non Issues’ by the community. That was the case that this Lions Issue caused and it would be sad if people assumed that was all there was to GotIssuez.

Mark also commented on Erik’s Post:

We appreciate the mention here, even though the Lion Issue in question is highly misinformed, this is one of the few examples where the community shows its strengths.

Amidst the ignorance of few (or many) in the community, there is a voice of reason that can clarify and sort this issue and that power changes the perceptions of people far beyond on GotIssuez.Com.

On GotIssuez there’s a far bigger picture – I’ll give an example:

Savannah is a great restaurant/lounge at Museum Hill and it was where one of our GotIssuez members was happily enjoying a coffee and the facilities, when she noticed that there was only one bathroom (and for such an establishment – this wasn’t acceptable)

This Issue went up on GotIssuez and was agreed upon by many. Eventually it went on to reach the Management of Savannah, who issued a statement to correct the situation as it came to their attention and they have made the necessary arrangements to address it.

No one needs to tell you how great the gap between customer and provider is in this East Africa.

The suggestion box has lost faith in the eye of the consumer. It’s inability to bring change, has developed a need in the market. The customer may ‘always be right’ but they’re seldom listened to, this is where GotIssuez comes in.

Occasionally on GotIssuez, positive issues come in, and though few and far between, the majority are negative, but a positive outcome is usually reached through that ‘voice of reason.’

We’ve created a platform for sustainable and actionable feedback from a Generation Y powered community.

Regarding the Issue on the Lions, it’s already been clarified (by the community), and I have spoken briefly with Paula.

If you’re going to remember GotIssuez for anything, remember us for something positive.

All in all, we much appreciate the post and the exposure, it sure has lead to some interesting feedback and connections as a result. We also appreciate Munashe at TechMasai for the post he did about GotIssuez