Eleven years ago, a client invited me to provide training to their Rwandan board of directors at an offsite location. I landed in the beautiful city of Kigali and went by road to the gorilla trekking resort town of Gisenyi. Nestled on the shores of Lake Kivu, Gisenyi lies 154 kilometres northwest of Rwanda’s capital and is a bustling border town and gateway into the DRC through Goma on its lakeside flanks. Due to the myriad hills that dot the volcanic landscape of the region, the drive takes twice the time it should, at least three hours of meandering through rural villages on a relatively good two-lane tarmac road. About an hour to approaching the town, a passenger tossed out a plastic bottle of water from the backseat of the vehicle that was in front of us.

 

Seated in front of the vehicle I was riding in, I watched as our driver became visibly agitated. Pulling over to the side of the road, he said to me, “Look at this idiot just throwing rubbish on the road!” He got out of the vehicle and picked up the offending piece of trash, threw it into the boot of our car and we proceeded on the journey. If you are a Kenyan that has ever visited Rwanda, you know how astonishingly clean and disciplined that country is. It is every single thing that Kenya is not. Yeah yeah, I know that comparisons are the thief of joy and all that motivational talk blarney, but my fellow Kenyans, only God can help us now.

 

Umuganda, a traditional Rwandan practice of community work or community service, was officially reintroduced by President Paul Kagame as a part of his administration’s efforts to promote reconciliation, environmental cleanliness and community solidarity. Under Kagame’s leadership, Umuganda has become a monthly event where citizens participate in various community service activities on the last Saturday of each month, a key one being cleaning the environment around one’s neighborhood. The initiative aims to foster a sense of community and collective responsibility among the Rwandan population, contributing to the country’s post-genocide reconstruction and development efforts.

What I like about the practice is that in his wisdom, Paul Kagame looked for the least expensive and most equalizing event that would get citizens out on the street undertaking a unifying activity. More importantly, he connected the dots that by creating discipline around cleanliness you started to get the citizenry unconsciously eschewing chaos. Now across the Rwandan border, due northeast lies a country heaving with 50 million citizens most of whom couldn’t describe what a public garbage bin even looks like. For the incredibly undisciplined driving citizenry of that same country, clearly marked road lanes are a suggestion. A dotted white aberration designed by road builders to break the black monotony of tarmac.

 

Now when you introduce these single lane natives to a dual carriageway, you blow their collectively simple minds. A good example is the newly built Kenol to Marua highway that extends past the end of the multi lane Thika Highway northbound to Nyeri. No one educated the driving masses past the town of Kenol that the left lane is for slow moving traffic. Neither were they consulted. There are multiple signs that dot the highway reminding drivers to keep left unless overtaking, but in the usual Kenyan mindset, those signs are meant for the other guy, surely not me. So, what is supposed to be a smooth drive is often curtailed by a veritable halfwit who drives on the right lane at exactly the same speed as the slow-moving truck correctly situate on the left lane. And sees absolutely no problem with the long line of incensed drivers tail backed in his rear-view mirror.

The more interesting drivers are those residents of the numerous villages along the highway who were not consulted about the road design. Consequently, in days past they were able to simply drive the hundred or so metres to Mama Gathoni’s shop to drop off a bag of beans enroute to Sagana to do some banking. The dual carriageway means that they now have to drive at least 3 kilometres to get to the U turn that will bring them back to Mama Gathoni’s shop. But that is too much, surely. It’s just easier to make the sign of the cross and drive against oncoming traffic on a national highway, smiling at irate drivers the whole time. If you introduce us natives to a newfangled road, like the road to Singapore for instance, you must be ready to educate us on how to use it. After all, we were not consulted.

X: @carolmusyoka

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