Rwandan female cross-border truck driver—Radouce Munyakazi—has passed on following a grisly accident that occurred in Kirehe district, on the evening of Wednesday, December 30. The 30-year-old is survived by a husband and three children. Munyakazi, who is among the few female long-distance truck drivers in the country, was en route from Tanzania. She died after the truck she was driving swerved off the road at an area called Kinuzi not very far from the Rusumo One-Stop Border Post. She was just in September this year featured by The New Times in an interview where she gave an account of her working life in an industry that is male-dominated. Speaking to The New Times, CIP Hamdun Twizeyimana, the police spokesperson for Eastern Region said they had not yet ascertained what caused the accident. He also confirmed that Munyakazi was alone in the cargo truck. “She lost control of the vehicle and jumped out. Unfortunately, she was crushed by the same truck.” Witness accounts say the truck was at a moderate speed, he said. “The victim’s body has been taken to Kirehe Hospital pending burial arrangements to be made by her immediate family,” Twizeyimana said. Faustin Kayiranga, a close friend of the deceased said in an interview that this was a great loss to many who knew her. “The tragic news of her death has shocked us so much. She was my close friend we used to meet often,” he said. He paid tribute to her saying that she was renowned for her resilience and kind heart. During her interview with The New Times, Munyakazi said that she worked for a Rwandan freight transport company, Nine United Ltd, and was plying both routes on the Northern Corridor (Mombasa-Nairobi-Kampala-Kigali) and the Central Corridor which links Rwanda to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. She said she had been inspired to join the industry by her father, who is himself a long-distance truck driver. Employer speaks out Godfrey Byaruhanga, the Managing Director of the Nine United Ltd that employed the deceased said she was the only female driver for this company. He described her as a resilient driver and efficiently operated both Tanzania and Kenyan routes. “It is grief that we lost our staff. We are organizing to join her family for the funeral on a day we are yet to know,” he said. According to friends, the deceased was currently living in Nyanza district with her family but had also lived in Rusizi District.
