A special campaign is going on in which school buses are stopped and put under mechanical inspection to ascertain their roadworthiness.

Efforts to address the issue of unfit school buses began in 2022, but an accident on Monday January 9, in which one schoolchild died and 24 sustained injuries, led to renewed calls to further investigate the status of the vehicles.

Results of the current inspection have yet to be released, but a similar one in December 2022 found that only 5 out 97 inspected buses in Kigali were in good condition, the Traffic Police department said.

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There’s a popular perception that schools buy old passenger buses unfit for the transport business and turn them into school buses – a practice that puts children’s lives at risk.

The mechanical inspection of school buses is taking place in Gikondo at the exhibition centre.

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Most of the schoolchildren injured in the Monday accident have been discharged. As of Tuesday afternoon, three people were still in hospital.

The cause of the accident has yet to be known, but initial information indicates that the bus had a mechanical problem in its wheel system.