Rwanda National Police

The ongoing year-long national road safety campaign dubbed ‘Gerayo Amahoro’ continued this Tuesday with the launch of the infrastructure protection month.

The month of July is dedicated to infrastructure protection and shall involve erecting road safety signposts, repainting pedestrian walks and establishing new ones where they don't exist and yet required.

The first week of the campaign will focus in the City of Kigali and the Northern Province before shifting to other regions.

On Tuesday, Police and partners created more pedestrian crosswalks and repainted fading ones especially in hotspots like towns, trading centres and schools as well as erecting signposts along Kigali-Musanze highway (Rulindo, Gakenke and Musanze district) and in three schools in Nyarugenge District located near the road.

The schools are Groupe Scolaire Camp Kigali, Groupe Scolaire EPA and Ecole Primaire Intwali.

The Governor of Northern Province, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi, while addressing a cross-section of road users in Musanze, who include drivers, passengers and pedestrians, said that inappropriate use of road does not only kill people but also destroys infrastructures thus affecting the economy and development in general.

“Roads are meant to facilitate safe movement of people and goods but not to kill them and to destroy their property at the hands of inappropriate users,” Governor Gatabazi said.

He urged drivers to respect traffic signposts to preserve roads and other infrastructures like electricity and building.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Jean Baptiste Ntaganira, the Northern Regional Police Commander, said that increasing visibility of signposts is meant to “emphasize safety on road and make everyone safe.”

In Kigali, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Emmanuel Manimba, the Head of Operations in Traffic and Road Safety Department, while addressing students in Nyarugenge, urged them to endeavour to know the meaning of traffic signposts and respect them.

“You have to know how to cross the road, where and when… use the road appropriately. Children are victims of road accidents because sometimes they do not know how to cross the road, they do not know traffic lights and road posts or sometimes play in the middle of the road,” SSP Manimba said.

He emphasized that increasing visibility of traffic signposts goes with educating all categories of road users including students in order to prevent or minimize road carnage.

The Head-teacher of GS Camp Kigali, Jean de Dieu Niyonsenga thanked RNP for educating especially student on safe road usage.

“From Primary One to Primary Three, we teach traffic rules, like the meaning of traffic lights and other road signs. We have sessions with their teachers and people who help them to cross the road and this has created positive impact,” Niyonsenga said.

The national road safety campaign is expected to enhance road safety through sensitization of road users towards behavioural change.