It’s not every day that the word ‘force’ is used when referring to road transport.
Today however, allow me to use it: until I get to use ‘air force’ as a means of transport, ‘land force’, in all its diversity, is my means of transport.
Let me take you down memory lane to when I had just moved to Kigali-Rwanda, my very first visit outside Kampala-Uganda, my home town.
Now majority will think I’m going to talk about the clean-all-green city and quiet environment that Kigali serves. Nice guess, though, none of those caught my attention like the ‘land port’ (bus park downtown) did.
It was a Monday afternoon when me and my two friends; one being our host, decided to visit Kigali downtown.
Having had a long week at work, our host didn’t feel like eating home-made food, so she decided we go down town-Kigali: ‘kill two birds with one stone’; eat out while at the same time we tour Kigali city.
Long story short, time for going back home approached and she led us to the bus park.
In Kampala, where I hail from, buses are used when travelling outside of the city. In Kigali however, they are the most used type of public transport; within or outside the city.
To me, this place was like an ‘airport’ (although I’ve not been to one before, I know how it’s organised out there).
The place was beautifully ‘painted’ with white with blue/green striped buses, although, it’s not what made my jaw drop: the cleanliness did. A bus park, a public gathering, all clean with no littering, wow….who would have thought?.
As if that wasn’t enough, people were lining up to get inside the buses, with no one ordering them to, another unprecedented thing in my world.
Now you know where I’m coming from with the term ‘land port’; if it’s not the ‘airport’, we have a ‘land port’ as a substitute.
While still trying to stomach that, a bus comes by and despite the long queue, the people behind make no effort to fight for space. They all gladly respect those at the front, letting them board first. Wow Kigali, wow!
Me and my other friend, who was also visiting, couldn’t believe our eyes, as we were both used to ‘survival for the fittest’ when it comes to getting public transport in Kampala during the ‘rush hours’. This was indeed a ‘landport’!
What was actually a ‘lifetime’ waiting for the next bus, felt like a ‘blink of an eye’ wait, because it was not hectic in any way.
There are seats at the ‘land port’ for those waiting to catch the next bus. This is coupled with soothing Kinyarwanda music from loud speakers all playing for everyone within the premises to hear, to complete the ‘flight’ experience, we had to book for tickets before getting onto the bus.
Despite the long queue, there was nothing like ‘overloading’ in the bus, our ‘flight’ was as comfortable as it could be: no portholes, no traffic jam, and no ‘conductors’ shouting through the window calling on passengers to board.
Months later, bigger buses than the ones we took the first time were added onto the collection.
These had in TV sets, more comfortable seats and to book a flight, instead of the former bus tickets, a ‘Tap and Go’ card was used; One had to buy the card for as low as 5oo FRW, and load whichever amount they needed.
Unfortunately, this made the ‘bus flights’ ‘uncomfortable’ as months went by.
A thing that might have been caused by ‘our praise’ of the comfortable journey on the bus: Supposedly, the ‘praises’ attracted more people to have a glimpse of it and before we knew it, Kigali was ‘filled to the brim’.
Of course responsible parties are working tirelessly to see that the ‘bus flights’ get back to the comfort they had, however, a lot still needs to be done.
Currently, boarding the bus in Kigali is a tag of war, not to mention getting the ‘once’ disciplined passengers who used to wait for their turn to get in who turned into ‘kick-boxers’.
In addition, bus drivers load the bus ‘until it drops’, because ‘to the brim’ is seemingly not enough. Thank the heavens that Rwandans don’t have ‘long hands’. If it was in my hometown, one would be getting home with an empty bag everyday.
Furthermore, the once serene and quiet drive aboard the buses, is now filled with music from crying babies(whose cry is justified given the number of people on board), conversations on all kinds of topics, loud enough for whoever cares to hear, and the stale atmosphere that makes one wish we could go back to the terrible ‘COVID’ times (the ones that had us move wearing face masks).
Comfort aside, the flights are not as safe as they should be in my opinion. In most cases, there is a minor in transit, the over crowdedness of people with whatever kind of health issues exposes them to ‘unwanted’ illnesses.
Not to mention the expectant mothers and very elderly who can’t stand for long. Now I know the majority of the youths in Rwanda are disciplined and they offer their seats to these vulnerable people, however, sometimes they don’t.
The beautiful hills and valleys that make up Rwanda are also a ‘danger’ in one way or the other. Much as the drivers are experienced, the endless corners along the journey, in case of a misfortune, can see multiple lives lost once an accident occurs
My heart is at peace though, because authorities are aware of all this, and just recently, JALI bus company added over 20 buses to their fleet and promised many others to come; in an effort to curb on the overloading and the countless hours spent while waiting for a bus
However, my humble plea is that safety is ensured in the meantime; we would rather “be safe than sorry”. Let the set number of passengers on one bus be strictly adhered to. Personally, I would prefer getting to my destination late than with a broken leg, arm, or sickness from taking an overcrowded bus.
