New motorcycle cooperatives have been established in Kigali City to bring order to the operations of motorists, as well as encourage their management and accountability.

The move was announced on Monday November 14, by Rwanda Cooperatives Agency together with the City of Kigali and Rwanda National Police.

There are five cooperatives in total, with 2 in Nyarugenge district, 2 in Gasabo district and 1 in Kicukiro district.

The Acting Director General of Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), Patrick Baganizi, said that the new motorists' cooperatives will be sector-based and motorcyclists will vote representatives for each of their cooperatives.

"Motorcyclists came up with the idea of cooperatives by themselves; each cooperative will be given a trustee paid by the government,” he said.

Baganizi also called on motorcyclists to follow traffic rules to avoid road accidents.

Vice Mayor in charge of Urbanisation and Infrastructure of the City of Kigali, Merard Mpabwanamaguru, hoped for the new strategy to facilitate motorcyclists to offer excellent service.

"The government will handle the salaries of the managers of the five cooperatives; these efforts are being put in place so that the cooperatives benefit motorcyclists.”

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rene Irere, Spokesperson of Traffic and Road Safety department, tasked motorcyclists to be cooperative and work closely with authorities to find solutions to the challenges they face.

Eugene Nshimiyimana, a motorcyclist, said that with the new cooperatives, they hope to have their challenges, such as unaccountable leadership, addressed.

Before, Nshimiyimana said that the leadership would make decisions and then go to them with ideas to implement, something he said was really difficult since they weren’t participating in decision making.

"But with these new cooperatives, we hope to see some new changes in operations,” he said.

Theoneste Turatsinze, another motorcyclist, said that the idea of initiating new cooperatives was highly welcomed by motorists, "We were fed up with mismanagement and lack of accountability among the management.”

"We are excited about the new changes. This sounds promising and we can’t wait to see the fruits of these new cooperatives.”

Leaders of the motorcyclist cooperatives will be voted on November 16th from different sectors in districts where the cooperatives will be operating.