Police in Kigali arrested two men on Monday for impersonation after they were allegedly found sitting provisional driver’s licence tests under other people’s names. Alex Nshimiyimana and Dieudonne Mutagisha were purportedly hired by candidates to seat for the provisional driver’s licence test on their behalf. The public driving licence tests started on Monday in Kigali, where over 6000 permit seekers gathered at Amahoro stadium to prove their understanding of traffic rules. The duo is said to have been found holding forged national IDs containing particulars of genuine candidates, who were not present at the time. Chief Inspector of Police Emmanuel Kabanda, the spokesperson for the department of Traffic and Road Safety, said investigations are still on to find their accomplices. “We are aware of the tricks some people use to acquire driver’s permits, such as hiring others to sit the tests on their behalf; at times they seat together while in other occasions they forge the national ID of the actual registered candidate to pose as real candidates,” CIP Kabanda said. He advised driver’s permit seekers to always attend classes and prepare themselves for the tests instead of taking the ‘illegal and impossible channels’ that would land them into trouble. Statistics indicate that of those who did private tests in January this year, only 41.6 per cent passed while only 29.5 per cent passed the public tests conducted in February. In March, only 38.6 per cent of the total candidates passed in driving schools. At least 90 people have been arrested with fake driver’s license since the beginning of the year, and the majority of them didn’t even know that they were actually holding fake permits, according to Kabanda. A total of 22, 900 people registered to sit both provisional and practical driving tests across the country, with 9, 367 of them in Kigali alone. The tests began on May 4 in Kigali and will end on May 28 in the Eastern Province. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
