KIGALI, RWANDA – Furaha Uwamahoro, 21, is one of just four female motorcycle taxi drivers registered to operate in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.
Uwamahoro has dark skin and short, natural hair. Wearing baggy blue jeans, a Lacoste T-shirt and men’s shoes, she stands on the streets of Kigali, taking a short break from transporting residents around the city. She has a medium build and walks with a masculine swag. Her voice is deep yet feminine.
Although the legal driving age in Rwanda is 16, Uwamahoro says she started to learn how to drive a motorcycle when she was just 9 years old. On the way to primary school, there was a place that offered lessons on driving motorcycles. Every time she passed by, she used to stop and watch other people as they learned.
Soon, her brothers taught her how to drive one. When Uwamahoro was in 11th grade, her family started struggling to pay her school fees. She dropped out and decided to become a motorcycle taxi driver.
“I decided to become a motorbike driver as I was no longer able to get the school fees,” she says.
It has been five years since Uwamahoro began offering motorcycle taxi services in Kigali. She doesn’t have her own motorcycle, so she rents them from other people, splitting her profits with them.
She says she earns 9,000 francs ($15) per day. She gives 5,000 francs ($8) to the owner of the motorcycle, leaving her with 4,000 francs ($7) for a day’s work.
She also teaches other women how to drive motorbikes, offering lessons outside Amahoro Stadium. Uwamahoro is quick to add that she earns more money instructing than offering taxi services.
“Normally, when coaching, I can make 20,000 Rwanda francs per day,” she says, which is $33 after paying 30,000 francs ($55) to the bike’s owner.
Uwamahoro says that some people think that learning how to ride a motorcycle takes too long, and that is why they choose other jobs. But she says this isn’t true.
“You can drive within a month,” Uwamahoro says.
She says that there are only three main skills that people need to know in order to drive a motorcycle: “accelerating, decelerating and shifting the gears.”
Uwamahoro lives with her father and her two brothers. Her mother died when she was young. Her father, Emmanuel Gatera, says he is proud of what his daughter does.
“I felt really happy,” says Gatera, a 65-year-old truck driver. “She is my only kid who is trying to follow my career.”
Gatera isn’t concerned that his daughter instructs men. He says his daughter is more than capable.
“She is even able to drive a car,” he says joyfully.
He says there isn’t much difference between running a motorcycle taxi business and driving trucks. As such, he has a surprise for his daughter.
“I am planning to help her get a truck driving license,” Gatera says. “Because I think she will be able to drive trucks abroad, like in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.”
Gatera urges other parents who have daughters with different talents to help their children in two ways: to advise their children on their career path of choice and to provide them with all the means they need to succeed.
Motorcycle taxi drivers in the capital welcome the handful of women who have started to join the business. But even female passengers are wary of having women drive them around the city, worried that it might not be safe. As local taxi driver cooperatives look to grow in order to provide more support to its members, such as loans, they say that fines from police hamper their progress. Police insist that the fines serve to protect citizens.
Uwamahoro is a member of Federation Rwandaise de Conducteurs de Taxis Moto, one of the city’s motorcycle taxi drivers’ cooperatives. It has more than 15,000 members across Rwanda, with close to half based in Kigali. Only three are women, says Erick Ntibingizwe, the cooperative’s leader. There are about a half dozen of these cooperatives in the capital but only one other female driver registered with them.
Twizeyimana, who declined to give his last name to protect his privacy, is a tall 28-year-old motorocycle taxi driver. He is Uwamahoro’s workmate. They have worked together for four years. He says that Uwamahoro is different from other women.
“She’s never ashamed of her job,” he says. “And she is well-behaved.”
Twizeyimana says that he considers Uwamahoro like a sister. She is the only woman that he works with.
But some passengers – even women – reject the notion of being ferried across the city by a female motorcycle taxi driver.
Kayitesi Rukiya, 30, who works in a hair salon, says it would be trouble.
“No, no,” she says. “I could not accept a woman to drive me on a motorbike. Because I assume we could get an accident or other problems on the way.”
Zayana Hakizimana, a student at Kigali Independent University, says it would depend on the woman’s experience in riding a motorcycle.
“If she is a well-known motorbike driver, it can be OK,” she says. “But otherwise, it could not work.”
Richard Semanyana, 26, is another motorcycle taxi driver in Kigali. He says that he would like to see more women drivers so that they could have more “sisters” in the motorcycle taxi business. He does not fear their competition.
“If their number would increase up to 10, everyone can find passengers, since God is the provider of our daily ratio,” he says.
Ntibingizwe encourages more women and girls to take up motorbike taxi driving. He says that membership requirements to belong to the cooperative are minimal: A driver just needs to own a national identity card, possess a driver's license and submit an application letter. He or she must also pay 30,000 francs ($50) in order to register with the cooperative.
“I would encourage our sisters to take part in motorbike-driving job,” he says. “And while working together, they can get used to the job and feel no big problem.”
Ntibingizwe says that with Rwanda’s good infrastructure, motorcycle taxi drivers are able to get their clients close to their destinations and homes.
Still, he sees room for the industry to grow and improve.
The cooperative received official approval from the Rwanda Cooperative Agency, a public regulatory institution, in the fall of 2010. As it is just more than a year old, the cooperative currently doesn’t yet have a system to offer loans to its members to help them to invest in their businesses.
But Ntibingizwe says that the group plans to start its own loan system by end of 2012 that will enable all members to get access to loans. For now, the cooperative assists its members in the repair of damaged motorcycles after accidents.
Besides accidents and capital, Ntibingizwe says that some drivers also face challenges with the police.
“The major problem is the police take motorbikes from the drivers and keep them for almost one month,” he says.
He says that that this time duration costs the driver, and at times the cooperative, income.
Most of the motorcycles are confiscated when the drivers or the people they lend them to don’t have a driver’s license or bike permit. Ntibingizwe recommends that the police ease the penalties to avoid interfering with their work.
But Theos Badege, spokesman of the Rwanda National Police, says that the police impose these penalties because it has the responsibility of protecting the citizens. Police also only confiscate the bikes of repeat offenders.
“We retain the motorbike for the whole month after finding out that the owner has committed the same offense more than once,” he says. “Even though motorists complain about penalties imposed on them, they normally first agree with the police on the rules and regulations to be respected.”
Badege says that police usually impose a fine of 5,000 francs ($8) or 10,000 francs ($17).
But Uwamahoro says that no challenge is too great, encouraging other women to join the business.
“There is no big problem in driving motorbikes,” she says.
Uwamahoro says she strongly encourages more women, especially young girls, to try this profession.
“If you want, you may come and check,” she offers to those who interested. “God granted us with arms so we can use them.”
