Rwanda National Police

The Rwanda National Police (RNP) department of Traffic and Road Safety has announced that public tests for candidates that registered for provisional and practical driver's driving tests will begin on May 4 in the City of Kigali City before extending to other parts of the country.

 In Kigali, according to the released timetable, will end on May 9 and the tests for provisional licence seekers in Kigali will only be held at the Amahoro Stadium ‎as opposed to previous public exams that would be conducted from different sites.

 Between May 11 and 14, the tests will be conducted in the Sothern Province, plus Nyamasheke, Karongi, Rusizi, Rutsiro and Ngororero districts of Western Province.

 In the Northern Province and the remaining districts of the Western Province, the tests are scheduled to commence on May 18 and end on May 21.

 The tests will end in the Eastern Province between May 25 and 28.

 "All tests starts at 8am and we remind candidates to keep time to avoid missing, which has been happening in the past,"‎ Chief Inspector of Police Emmanuel Kabanda, Spokesperson for Traffic and Road Safety, said.

 “Police has ensured that driving licence seekers are facilitated at least every month. We have dedicated eight months to private driving schools while the remaining for months have been dedicated to those who want to do public tests," he added.

 To dedicate more months to driving schools is meant to empower them build their standards but also facilitate and support general public involvement and ownership of the tests as we encourage growth CIP Kabanda said.

 He, however, noted that lack of seriousness among driving permits seekers has led to a big number of failures, especially those that sit for public tests without any prior training.

 “When you look at how exams were conducted and performance of the first quarter, in public tests, majority of the candidates failed their exams compared to those who do tests in private driving schools."

 “These tests have been made easy and any serious candidate should pass. Therefore, we request people to take their driving exams more seriously,” he said.

 Statistics indicate that of those who did private tests in January this year, 41.6 percent passed compared to 29.5 percent that passed the public tests in February.

 In March, only 38.6 percent of the total candidates passed in driving schools.

 CIP Kabanda highlighted that some who fail resort to bribing or work with conmen who claim to be working on behalf of Police, who end up giving them fake permits.

 “Since the beginning of 2015, 90 people have been arrested with fake driver's license and majority of these people didn't even know that they were actually holding fake permits because they were tricked to believe that what they were given through an illegal channel is actually real,” he said.

 “You find that they are made culprits and accomplices in a crime, which should not be the case because the tests have been eased. Channels to acquire a driving license were made easy and brought closer to the people.”

 He also warned those who hire others to do tests on their behalf, a case that has led two people to be arrested this year.

For further information  on traffic related matters contact 0788311502 or info@police.gov.rw