{Rwanda National Police has warned commercial motorcyclists against carelessness and urged them to adhere to the practice of operating within their cooperatives in order to streamline their operations. }
The message was delivered December 30, by the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana co-chaired with the mayor of Kigali Fidele Ndayisaba and brought together over 30 heads and representatives of commercial cyclists cooperatives operating in the City of Kigali.
The meeting held at the Rwanda National Police (RNP) Headquarters in Kacyiru was also attended by the officials from Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA).
“Motorcyclists must be organized in their business. Some of them do not wear the uniform while some are very reckless and do not adhere traffic rules or even respect the norms of their cooperatives. This behaviour must stop because it cant be tolerated,” IGP Gasana said.
“Things like overloading are also common; whereby, motorcyclists carry people and large goods at the same time. This is a recipe for accidents. The cooperatives should also come out strong against their defiant members, organise and professionalise their business instead of letting few individuals continue to tarnish their image,” he added.
Mayor, Ndayisaba, urged the motorcyclists to hasten the launch of a website that will disseminate daily information about the progress and challenges of commercial motorcyclists, as a way of making their work more visible to the public.
“We agreed together with RURA and the motorcyclist cooperatives that this website should be up and running by February next year. This will be a good move in ensuring that all operators are known and their work will be more critical in the eyes of the public.”
“There are some undisciplined motorcyclists who tarnish the image of their colleagues, but at this level we also acknowledge the way some of the members have adhered to the good operations. There is need to devise tough measures against those that are still defiant,” said Ndayisaba.
He added that together with RNP, they are organising a study tour to one of the countries where they will learn more on how to organise and manage commercial motorcycle operations in the city and the country in general.
Bosco Nshimiyimana, the head of commercial motorcyclists in Kacyiru, commended Police in its endeavor to maintain traffic safety, and promised that motorcyclists will operate more professionally in the coming year.
“We shall put everything in place to ensure that every recommendation we agree is implemented. We are seeking to develop in this activity and we can only do so by operating in a manner that every Rwandan appreciates.
The meeting was meant to review the implementation of the previous one held in January this year, which adopted some resolutions including operating in cooperatives, securing transport authorisation permit from RURA, ensuring internal disciplinary of defiant members and harmonising uniform colours.
During a presentation on the implementation of the resolutions, it was revealed that cooperatives have so far blacklisted 88 of their members, 95 percent of motorists have uniform while RURA respects the 10 days of issuing the transport authorisation permit although this process is sometimes hampered by heads of cooperatives who take long to take them to the regulatory body.
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