Bad news! Kigali finally has traffic jams

Talk about Kigali City is almost incomplete without the usual lines on the well paved streets, palm trees and functional street lights. When one talks about Kigali City, you get the impression that other cities in the East African region are actually villages. Some of the things you are not likely to hear someone mention when referring to Kigali are floods and traffic jams. On the contrary it cannot be called heavy rain in Kampala, Nairobi or Dar if some part of the city is not flooded by the time the rains stop. Nyabugogo has on a few occasions ‘tried’ to flood but compared to other cities it was just a small pond. If you think I am making this up just try and be in Bwaise (Kampala) when the rains start. The last time Nyabugogo area upped its flooding, the army descended on it with earth movers and fixed the problem. Now for the traffic jams, Kigali residents have for ages been denied the experience of this modern day problem. Actually, it was easy for one to try and water down the city’s niceties by complaining that despite the clean streets the cars are so few and so there are no traffic jams!Such people obviously used to confuse me with their statements. I did not know why they were interested in a city of many cars unless they were fuel dealers. Anyway, it looks like their prayers have been answered. The clean city can now boast of having some measure of traffic jams in a few places and a few times. Of course the caution here is that as we in Kigali talk about traffic jam we should be careful that those in Kampala, Nairobi or Dar es Salaam do not hear us. If they do we can try and confuse them by saying we were only joking or that we meant the other jam that is put on bread and how many cars stop at supermarkets to buy it. Anyway, whatever we do, we should not be heard talking of traffic jams otherwise our neighbours will just laugh at us or think we have not yet mastered the English language. Let us go back to the topic. It now appears that places like Sonatube, Nyabugogo, the area from MINIJUST all the way to Kiseminti, parts of Giporoso and Kabeza are now seeing traces of traffic jam during the rush hours of the weekdays.Finally we can talk of Kigali as a ‘complete’ city thanks to this new and emerging problem. It now calls for us as Kigali people to adjust to this new way. For example, drivers of big cars should not drive so close to each other because other people like yours truly will be riding on a moto and hoping to beat the traffic by squeezing through the cars. So please do not block us as we head to our destinations. Yes, you may be the real VIPs but we also need to move quickly so we can make enough money to buy the big cars and enjoy this traffic jam thing to the fullest.I have to feel sorrier for the rich people because this traffic jam thing means you should put enough fuel in your car all the time. We do not want to laugh at you when you run out of fuel yet you are driving a big Land Cruiser VX aka Centre de Santé. Those with cars must also be ready to have their cars scratched or side mirrors knocked off by speeding motorcycles. Yes, every development comes with some pain so deal with the scratches. Other road users must be ready to view our beautiful traffic lights as mere entertainment gadgets because when the traffic piles up, the traffic police officers take charge. So stop looking at the lights and wait for the cars to move. And do not stop staring at the car before you. If it moves without you moving then you will be the reason Kigali is noisy as all the cars behind you will be hooting for you to move. More so, people have to get used to cross-car conversations. With the cars in one place for ages, it will be common for people in one car to shout, sorry ... converse with those in the nearby car. Do not say I didn’t warn you.

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Bad news! Kigali finally has traffic jams