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Kinyarwanda
As Rwanda National Police marks its 17th anniversary under the flagship of the annual “Police Week”, its Traffic and Road Safety Department has dedicated time during the monthlong community development and human security activities, to roll out road safety awareness programmes to all road users; motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Genesis, growth in facilities and capacities
Traffic and Road Safety Department is charged with the duty to ensure road safety as stipulated in article 3 of Law no 46/2010 of 14/12/2010 determining the powers, responsibilities, organization and functioning of the Rwanda National Police as modified to date.
In the year 2000 when Traffic and Road Safety Department was formed, it was staffed with a few dozens of officers. Most of Rwanda’s roads were not tarmacked, vehicles were fewer, there were fewer roadside signs, few road markings and few traffic lights, among others.
There was no firm and efficient system in place to enforce traffic rules and regulations and adherence to the rules was often a choice of vehicle operators. 17 years after, Rwanda has a population of around 200,000 vehicles and 20,000 motorcycles.
The number and quality of roads has increased, they are better and getting even much better, the road markings and signs are more and clearer, while the population of towns, Kigali in particular, has grown from 500,000 in 2000 to over 1,000,000 in 2017.
The road security policing landscape has tremendously changed and Traffic and Road Safety Department has had to change with it to fulfill its mandated duties.
Today, RNP has two fixed Motorvehicle Mechanical Inspection Centres (MIC); one in Remera and another one in Gishali. It also operates a mobile inspection facility. These three technical control equipment, have a combined capacity of inspecting over 700 automobiles per day.
This ensures that vehicles moving in Rwanda are road-worthy and less prone to mechanically induced accidents. Traffic and Road Safety Department is adequately staffed with officers well trained in various skills. It has a fleet of vehicles and high speed motor cycles to intervene when need arises and stress-callresponse time has reduced from an average of 60 minutes in 2000 to 15 minutes in 2017.
The department has acquired stateof-the-art equipment including breathalyzers for alcohol detection, speedometers and speed governors for vehicle speed control, Hand Held Devices and Automated Number Plate Recognition machines that have replaced the old manual system used to control traffic offenders.
