The City of Kigali has entered a partnership with a private business to identify sites and construct Public toilets on the main axes of the City, Sunday Times has learned. Mayor, Chantal Rwakazina, told this reporter, “We are soon approving the sites and the proposed design before we sign an MOU and start the construction process.” Preliminary mapping done by the city indicated that about.31 sites have been earmarked around Kigali for the set-up of public toilets. Quest for Hygiene Prior to the conversation with Mayor Rwakazina, Sunday Times had identified that along with several urban roads leading to the city centre, mainly at the bus stops, there was a visible lack of public restrooms. This was causing a lot of unpleasant smell at the bus shelters, presumably due to people who tend to stand behind these facilities and urinate there. For instance, from Kimironko Market to the City Centre, there are not more than two public toilets. Besides this being among the very busy routes connecting the city to the major suburbs, hygiene still remains a challenge, according to the regular users, because there are not enough public toilets. Recently, a private businessman opened a public toilet at the popular Rwahama’s bus stop and it’s been a “relief” to several mobile businesses around there. Sunday Times tried to reach the proprietor of the public toilet that is also attached to a Fixtech car washing bay to tell us what inspired him to start this rare business but he didn’t answer repeated telephone calls to his known mobile number. However, Ange Ayinkamiye, the manager of the business, said over a hundred people use the toilet daily. “This place is used by more than a hundred people daily,” Ayinkamiye said, adding that it has also created employment opportunities for people who clean the facility. “However I strongly need to say that it (public toilets) is a place which needs government regulation and deliberate intervention to keep it ideal for users,” Ayinkamiye added Bonavanture Dushimumuremyi, an MTN agent who operates a few meters from the facility said the toilet has been a huge relief for people around the area. “There are things that people rarely pay attention to but which are very important. Imagine, most of the people here are casual labourers who wash cars, taxi moto operators and those that work in hardware stores. This place used to stink of stale urine before this toilet was established. All these people would ease themselves behind this bus shelter,” Dushimumuremyi says. Dushimumuremyi now doesn’t have to walk 500 meters to the nearby restaurant to access a restroom, he said. Elias Niyonkuru, a security guard at one of the hardware stores also noted that, “This restroom has greatly improved the hygiene of this place because people no longer have to urinate in open places.” Mayor Rwakazina said a new public restroom is under construction by a private investor near Amahoro Stadium at a nearby driving school which is expected to be functional soon. There are seven public toilets that have been constructed by districts for the last two years, Sunday Times understand. According to a reliable source at the City Hall, petrol stations are going to be mobilized to provide these services to their clients and the public. 70 petrol stations have been contacted, according to the source. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
