Rwanda National Police

The men and women will brave the scorching sun that swelters through the navy blue uniform to their skin. No heavy downpour will get them off the road despite the risks of either being hit by a reckless driver or even struck by lightning during the rain. They're Traffic Officers; the men and women in navy blue uniform with an apple green-striped reflective jacket whose number one priority is to make sure that thousands of road users do the least excepted from them, which is to adhere to road safety standards.

They have to always be in their upright mind to deliver on their job, but what motivates them to take on such an enormous responsibility?

Let’s get to the bottom of all this; after the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi that plunged the country into mourning, one way of rebuilding and rehabilitating a devastated, traumatized and failed state was to restructure institutions, rebuild infrastructures and have standards, and ensure effectiveness.

One of the institutions that were established is Rwanda National Police (RNP), from the merger of the communal police, Gendarmerie Nationale and judicial police.

The traffic and road safety department was then formed and under the police act 46/2010, with the mandate of laying all possible strategies to make sure that every road user in Rwanda makes it to his or her destination safely.

President Paul Kagame once said: “...Rwandans must be able to take their security and safety for granted...” This is a strategic guidance to further ensure that safety and security is reassured even on the road, and at all times.

The traffic officers are law enforcers, who wake up every day highly dedicated to make sure that more than 200, 000 vehicles, 80, 000 motorcycles and millions of pedestrians; be it nationals or foreigners visiting Rwanda; are indeed safe as they run their errands.

They're on the road as mediators or neutral referees, who stand in the middle of all categories of road users to avoid chaos and disorder. The motivation of these men and women is to protect the vulnerable ones and control the erratic ones as well.

We have all seen stubborn and reckless drivers, who refuse to stop at a zebra crossing to give right of way to pedestrians; or this reckless driver talking on the phone and suddenly knocking innocent people on the side walk, or rolling off the road and killing passengers. Note that road users include those who can't read and depend on signposts expecting to be directed to safety.

Nonetheless, every road user should take safety first. Traffic accidents can be avoided if every road user knows his rights and recognize their role in curbing accidents.

Figures indicate that pedestrians constitute the most vulnerable category of road users accounting for 46 percent of the fatalities registered between August and October this year, and 21 percent of the 254 serious injuries registered in the same period. On the other side, motorcyclists are the highest contributors to roads accidents whereas human behaviors like drunken driving, violation of speed limit, and tempering speed governors emerge to be the leading causes of vehicles accident.

More to that, road safety is not merely a matter of setting traffic laws and traffic violations’ fines; it is a process of changing mindset and attitude.

Knowing that mindset change is not something that can be done overnight, Rwanda National Police (RNP) will never give up on its duties of educating road users with the aim of keeping them safe.

Learning and respecting road safety rules is a shared responsibility.

Traffic Officers are educators, engineers, enforcers and evaluators. This is what road safety entails. His or her efforts highly contribute to reducing accidents on the roads. This is what motivates and inspires the traffic police officers.