Motorbikes banished from Kigali for a week!
on Annemiek Miller (Rwanda), 01/Sep/2006 08:16, 34 days ago
Motorbikes banished from Kigali for one weekFrom out of nowhere, a week ago, motorcycles were suddenly taken off the streets of Kigali! They were polluting, accident prone, unruly and considered undesirable by those who make the rash decisions this country sometimes has to live with.Kigali is a city spread out over many hills with a relatively small centre. There are taxi busses (holding 22 people that drive on various routes but do not touch the down town area nor do they enter the residential areas. When one arrives at the edge of downtown with one of these buses, it was easy to hop on the back of a motorbike and for a dollar or two be quickly taken to your destination. The alternative? :Walking or taking a regular taxi, although the latter is too costly to consider unless you are a party of three or four. I was in Kigali yesterday and it was like a ghost down: just cars driving along with no bikes weaving through the traffic. Apparently though, the bikes are back!!! A meeting was held in the stadium last night with all the motards who thought they had lost their livelihood only to have it given back to them a week later. They will have to live with more regulations to improve the safety of their passengers. Well, there is no harm in that!