It is illegal for a motorcycle to carry two adults and a child because it amounts to overloading, police have said. “Well, it’s very dangerous but it’s also illegal and people must avoid it,” CP Jean Bosco Kabera, the Spokesperson of the Rwanda National Police, told The New Times. The comment came after a photo of a woman carrying a baby on her back on a taxi-moto, and with a driver, circulated on social media platforms this week, raising concerns among a section of the public about the safety of children on motorbikes. “A motorcycle is only allowed to carry a maximum of two people; the driver and one passenger,” Kabera said. “When you add a child it is considered as overloading aside from the fact that you are putting the child’s life in great danger since the child does not have a helmet and in case of an accident the chances of survival are slim.” It is also illegal to put a child on a motorcycle even if they were without company, he added. He, however, admitted that the law needs to be streamlined, adding that this process is already underway. “A new draft law is currently being worked on, it will address issues like how old a child must be in order to go on a motorcycle, and clearly spell out punishments that will be given to people who do it, putting the lives of children in danger,” he added. Eric Ndagijimana, a taxi-moto operator in Gasabo District, who has been doing the job for six years now, said knows it is prohibited but sometimes they have no choice. “Sometimes a woman comes carrying a child and she tells you to take her to a place nearby,” he said. “We tend to overcharge such people because the risks involved are too high.” Police say people with young children should opt for alternative means of transport, including public buses or school buses. Florence Mwiza, a mother of two from Karuruma, a suburb on the outskirts of Kigali city, said she often takes moto-taxis with her children aged four and seven. She said she cannot afford a cab, while using a bus is also not an ideal option since they live far from the main road. “My husband and I don’t own a car, and from our place to the bus stop it is quite a long distance, when I need to take my children somewhere I use taxi-motos to get to the bus stop or just to our destination. “Sometimes my husband will take one child and me the other, or I go with both, because I cannot let any of my children ride alone with a moto-bike, and yet moving with children in buses is very tiresome, you have to wait for more than an hour to get a bus so I prefer taxi-moto,” she said.
