Lessons for Nairobi from Kigali Africa's 'cleanest city'

In Rwanda, the conservation of environment is a serious issue in which there are no shortcuts and the Country has gone as far as ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on reduction of carbon emissions. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard] Rwanda has one of the most organised public transport systems in Africa and its capital city Kigali ranks among the cleanest. This is because of its cashless fare payment, scheduling of buses, phasing out 14-seater matatus, and instant fines for traffic offences through mobile phones among other measures. The city has now become a benchmarking destination for other African countries. However, the clean environment in the capital was not a mean feat - it was gradual and systematic. Real Estate had an interview with Rwanda's Minister for Infrastructure Dr Ernest Nsabimana, on how the country has managed to succeed where other African cities including Nairobi, have been struggling with littering and a chaotic public transport service. ''There is a vision of having a clean, safe and reliable public transport system in the city of Kigali. Our goal is to ease mobility through the establishment of reliable, affordable and efficient mass transport system'' said Dr Nsabimana. He disclosed that their urbanisation follows an integrated approach considering spatial, economic and social-environmental factors. Rwanda, a country of 13.2 million people and Kigali 1.7 million as per a recent population census is a member of the Smart Africa Initiative, whose vision, said Dr Nsabimana, targets to transform Africa into a single-digit market. Kenya, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali, Uganda, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and South Sudan are also members. "The government's vision is to achieve smart water, energy, transport system, sanitation system, social services, smart environment and you can see the idea is turning around the city of Kigali and others in the country,'' he said. According to the former deputy mayor in charge of infrastructure and urbanisation for Kigali for six years and director of Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), the public transport system consists of two components - urban transport for the capital city of Kigali and intercity and rural system. Public transport is carried by the private sector but regulated by the government through RURA. Currently, there are three main bus operators in the city with different operation zones. ''The operators are grouped into associations and cooperatives for easy coordination. The journey to improve public transport started in 2012 when buses were introduced,'' said Dr Nsabimana. This saw the relocation of 14 to 16-seater matatus to the countryside roads, a situation that has affected transport to date due to fewer vehicles against the increasing city population. To solve the shortage of public vehicles, the government according to the Minister of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Patricie Uwase, is in the process of acquiring 300 new buses that will be introduced in Kigali in the next three months. Uwase told this writer during the recent Umushyikirano (a national dialogue council) event, that about 10 buses will be electric, while the rest fuel-powered as the country transits to a green transport system. At the same time, cashless fare payment was introduced and now they use Tap & Go platform operated by AC Group company and which is also operational in Yaounde, Cameroon. ''This has helped operators have visibility on incomes and reduce the time passengers have to take to pay fares,'' said Dr Nsabimana. In Kenya, the same was introduced in 2014 by Equity Bank in conjunction with Google through BebaPay, Abiria by Kenya Bus Service, Tangaza Pesa PSV card and Co-op Bank's M-Nauli but failed a few months later in November. This was due to sabotage by matatu crews because it was denying them bonus collections that they share between drivers and conductors. Also, the issue of interoperability was another challenge since some cards were not accepted in other machines of other service providers, forcing one to have several cards. There are however renewed efforts to reintroduce the cashless payment as announced in January by Matatu Operators Association Chairman Jimal Ibrahim. According to Dr Nsabimana, individual operators were grouped into cooperatives and given tax incentives to import higher passenger capacity. ''The plan is to keep improving the bus system till we achieve all agreeable public transport. There is a feasibility study going on for the introduction of dedicated bus lanes on mainly key road corridors to ease mobility,'' he added. On traffic fines, he said Rwanda National Police (RNP) is in charge of ensuring road safety as the ministry develops policies, strategies and legislation governing road traffic. The introduction of enforcement cameras has worked well and fines are also now paid through mobile money(Momo) or Irembo, an equivalent of Kenyan's e-citizen, thus reducing interaction and corruption between road users and police. The management of boda bodas, which are also a means of transport in the city has been enhanced by installing meters on them. They are also organised into cooperatives. ''The meters set the fare tariff regulated by RUTA per kilometre through Intelligent Connected Fare Metre of (ICFM) was recently introduced in the city and changes with the cost of fuel,'' said Dr Nsabimana. The ICFM has helped passengers from being conned by boda operators unlike in Kenya where transport fee is negotiated. The metre, said the minister, helps them access credit facilities easily since they can print out the receipts to show income. In Rwanda, it is illegal for the operators to carry two pillion passengers while wearing of a helmet is mandatory. Violation of this law attracts fines. Speeding over 60 kilometres per hour in the city is also a traffic offence. Traffic offence messages and fines are received by traffic offenders on the phone since each number plate is registered, from a connected and interoperable system, which has most of the authorities including police, and RURA among others.

Lessons for Nairobi from Kigali Africa's 'cleanest city'

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