With LHDs, Rwanda is East African enough

The East African Community is considered by many as the most promising regional bloc on the continent. The original three member states were joined by their South Western neighbours Rwanda and Burundi in 2007. The community is committed to an integration process that will eventually evolve into a political federation. Rwanda has kept a commendable pace as far as integration is concerned as compared to the other member states. Some of the changes that Rwanda has undertaken since joining the regional bloc have been aimed at ‘fitting’ into what is considered the East African way of doing things. The adoption of English as the language of instruction in the school system is so far the most significant change. It left only Burundi as the only country using French as the language of school instruction. There is now an emerging discussion about the consideration for Rwanda to change its traffic system to fit the wider East African model, where automobile traffic utilises the left hand side of the road. Right now the proposal has been forwarded to the cabinet for consideration. According to the proposal, the outstanding issues are that the public transport sector is ‘suffering’ because Left Hand Drive cars (LHDs) are more expensive than the Right Hand Drive cars (RHDs) that are driven in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. I have been following the genesis of this argument and much as it sounds valid, the solution does not necessarily have to be an overhaul of the traffic system. Changing the system to allow cheaper cars to come in will only worsen the problem of traffic jams in the city. Yet, Kigali has topographic impediments when it comes to solving traffic problems. The numerous hills and a high population density make it very costly for the government to construct other access roads to relieve the existing ones of too much traffic. In my opinion, the government should reduce the taxes on public transport vehicles so that more people are encouraged to invest in the industry. Preference should be accorded to the bigger mini buses (coasters) that carry more people than the unbearably uncomfortable small mini buses (Twegerane). The reasoning that we shall be harmonising the system with the rest of East Africa does not hold much water. First of all Rwanda is already part of the EAC and does not have to do more to prove that is. In the European Union for instance, Britain has a different traffic system from the rest but has not considered changing in order to ‘harmonise’ with the rest of the EU members. Kampala, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam are choking with traffic problems because they allow the cheaper RHD vehicles. All these cities are struggling to contain this problem with little success. Kigali as a city cannot function with the type of traffic clogging that affects places like Kampala or Dar. In Kampala for instance, the traffic hold ups have become so bad that when an accident occurs, the drivers come out of their cars and exchange phone numbers with the one in the wrong agreeing to pay for the cost of repairing the innocently damaged vehicle before driving away quickly. If they wait for police without moving their cars then a very nauseating traffic jam will emerge from the one before and they will be insulted by everyone else for blocking the road. Sticking to the LHDs will go a long way in maintaining what a fellow contributor; Liban Mugabo called the competitiveness of Kigali city; less traffic jams and air pollution. Rwanda should seriously think about the notion of unity in diversity. We can keep the unique features of the country and still be deserving members of the EAC. The quality of life in the city, the security and efficiency should not be compromised at all. Inviting cheap RHD cars will soon turn this place into a dumping ground of old scrappy cars. As for being more East African, I think for now our legislators and policy makers need to concentrate on harmonising sectors like the education. Because here there is no doubt that some of our neighbours are a step ahead and we need to copy what they are doing and do it right. Harmonising the education sector is of much more relevance than the road system because it eventually influences the labour sector. If we do not adopt a superior system then we put our graduates at a competitive disadvantage on the EAC labour market. The upcoming East African Education expo is therefore a step in the right direction. Education is a necessity to the majority while car ownership is for the wealthy few. We just need to fix the public transport sector. The mark of a quality city or country is a functional public transport system not the side of the road used. ssenyonga@gmail.com