MAINSTORY: Stuck! Why so many students missed the beginning of term

“I do not know what to do now. All my friends have gone back home and my money has been stolen,” one student sobs at Nyabugogo taxi park on Sunday evening after failing to make it back to school safely. It’s common that in Kigali getting a taxi in the evening is tug of war. And like any war, you need finely tuned warfare tactics to succeed. Sunday evening was even worse than normal as students tried to get back to school. Taxi parks were awash with young hauling mattresses and heavy suitcases. Companies such as Atraco, Virunga, and Kigali Express were infested by puzzled looking students discovering that all seats had been booked hours in advance. Justus Rukundo, a student of Kagitumba Secondary School in Eastern Province, says “I have been waiting to get a taxi that goes to Eastern province but to no avail. At school there are rules that govern us that who ever reports after 5 p.m. should come with a parent.” Rukundo explains that parents send their children back to school early hoping that they will make it to school in time. If their children fail and head back home, parents are obliged to accompany their children the following day. Annah Mbabazi, a student in the Northern region who declined to name her school, says that getting back to school at the beginning of term is an ongoing problem. “At the opening of last term I failed to get a taxi. I reported at school with my parents the next day, who abused me a lot that I was careless not to be early. Now I wonder what I will tell my mum after failing to make it back to school again.” Jane Umutoni stranded in the taxi park at around 5 p.m., studies at Lycée de Zaza in Kibungo and does not know what to do with the heavy luggage she carries by herself. “My nearest uncle stays in Kabuga. At this time I can’t make it to school. I have to go to my uncle’s place but taxis that go to Kabuga do not want to carry my luggage. The one that had allowed taking my luggage charged me money meant for the fare to Kibungo,” says Jane. “Thieves are also alert at this time. They are known as abatubuzi, meaning conmen,” say police in Nyabugogo Taxi Park. The police say that thieves pretend to be conductors or drivers. Students give them their luggage and the luggage disappears with the so called conductors. Jane says that her friend went back home crying after she could not see her luggage. “A conman took the luggage in pretence of being a conductor. We did not know where he disappeared to,” says Jane. Atraco, a company responsible for transportation of people and their luggage in Rwanda, does not agree that shortage of taxis in Rwanda is the sole cause of students being stranded in the taxi park. Ntaganda Dominic, the assistant coordinator of ATRACO in the Southern Zone, operating in Nyabugogo, says students like traveling in the evening hours. “In the morning hours, you can not find students traveling. Our taxis some times go empty after failing to find people to take. Later in the evening students come in numbers when most of the taxis are still up country,” says Dominic. Dominic says that the problem escalated on Monday when there was hardly any taxis to take the big numbers of students by evening. “We hired buses from ONATRACOM; a government owned Transport Company to rescue us from this problem. The company sent us three buses that helped us in transporting most of the students who were stranded,” says Dominic. “Students want to loiter around the city to check on different people and to make some shopping hoping to go to school later. They forget that they will face problems of getting taxis when it is late,” adds Dominic. When asked about rising transport fares when students are going back to school, Dominic says that they deal with that issue accordingly. Some taxi drivers do it in hiding but if they are reported, Dominic says they are penalised accordingly. Another ATRACO worker who requested that his name remain anonymous, says that students come and just want to wait for their friends. Until they are a big group they will not leave. “I scared some who had lied to me that taxi men had hiked the prices from 1000frw to 1500frw. I told them that I was going to call the police. All of them found their way to a taxi.” Alphonsine Himbara, a taxi driver, says that students cause themselves to be stuck in the taxi pack. “They always come at ago not knowing that in the evening most of us have already come from the places they are going to. Whoever agrees to take them, tries to charge extra, for he would opt to sleep where he has headed in the evening, a place that is not his home,” says Himbara. It was all a bit confusing: Every party to the crisis had his or her own view about students who get stuck in the taxi park. But what about the parents who send their children to school hoping they will reach safely but only to end stranded in the taxi parks of Kigali? Duhimbaze Immaculate, a parent of four whose two children go to boarding school, says that she also had one of her children back home after failing to get a taxi to school. “The one who came back studies from Nyagatare secondary school, in Nyagatare district. But I cannot say that it is because he delayed to leave home. We couldn’t get any express vehicle as all had been booked before.” Immaculate says that her children can not use other taxis that are not express. “It once happened and my girl was dropped on the way together with a few others who had boarded, in pretence that the vehicle had a problem. That’s why I can’t use twegerane [taxis that are not express].” Donatha Nyirambabazi, a mother of one who studies from APECOM, Eastern Province, says that she was shocked to find her daughter still in the taxi park. Her daughter had left early in the morning hours and had not gone to school by 3 p.m. “When she saw me, she told me that she had been doing her own business all along,” says Nyirambabazi who put the blame on students whom she says want to first meet their boyfriends in town. The police are also not asleep at this time. They try to keep law and order in the taxi park. “We sometimes close the office and opt to move around to protect the big population of students. Those who fail to get taxis and are completely stranded and have failed to get where to sleep we take them to the nearest district offices where they stay the night safely,” says a policeman in Nyabugogo. The Police further say that abatubuzi (conmen) are on alert. They tell students lies to take their money and property. But word was that police had managed to reduce this problem in the taxi park gradually. It seems only those who know how to fight were in with a chance of making it back to school on time. tumusteve2008@yahoo.com