KIGALI, 18 November 2018: Ministry of Infrastructure in partnership with its stakeholders organised the celebration to mark the Africa Road Safety Day in Kigali and the launch of Road Safety Week.

Hundreds of city residents, government and police officials and motorists participated in the event which was characterized by sport activities at Rwanda Revenue Authority ground as part of the Car Free Day.

Different authorities vowed to take tough measures on offenders of traffic rules to curb the rising number of road accidents across the country.

Speaking at the event, Minister of State in charge of Transport, Eng. Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye said that the new traffic law, which will soon be promulgated, introduces stringent penalties against abuse of traffic rules.

He urged Traffic Police and all transport agencies to work together to ensure sanity prevails on Rwandan roads.

Minister Uwihanganye said that roads are built to make the population healthy and wealthy and that it is a pity that instead, some end up losing their lives on the same roads.

“The Government has proposed amendments to traffic regulations to ensure tough punishment for reckless driving”, he said, adding that “the regulations also stipulate punishments for pedestrians who do not respect traffic rules, according to the Minister”.

He also said that Government will soon install GPS (Global Positioning System) in all motorcycles to ensure that they are located and monitored whenever they are to avoid cases of malpractices.

The Inspector General of Police, DCG Dan Munyuza announced that the number of road accidents is rising due to violation of traffic rules. “Between January and September this year, road accidents in the country claimed the lives of 437 people and injured 662 people”, he said.

“Most of the reported accidents, especially in weekends, were related to drunk driving and violation of traffic rules and 50 percent of them involve motorcycle taxi operators, cyclists and pedestrians”, he said.

African Road Safety Day, which falls on November 18^th and is celebrated across the continent, seeks to offer an opportunity to draw attention to road accidents and traffic safety.

The road safety week will feature awareness campaigns involving Ministry of Infrastructure, Rwanda National Police and other partners across the country.