The meeting also decided that only essential services will continue to be offered.

As Rwanda National Police (RNP) continues to facilitate residents of Rwanda to access essential services following the lockdown in City of Kigali and movement restrictions in other parts of the country as one of the measures to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic; the force has urged the public not to abuse the platforms put in place to assist those seeking movement clearance permits.

RNP spokesperson, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera has said that there are some individuals, who seem to be using the platforms for no good reason, thus affecting others seeking clearance for urgent or emergency reasons.

The movement clearance can be applied through the web platform www.mc.gov.rw or dialing *127# and follow the instructions.

In the first 24 hours of the lockdown in Kigali, RNP received 11,928 movement clearance requests of which 9,359 were approved while 2,569 others rejected.

“The approved requested had valid grounds like those going for shopping, banking and medical services as well as other emergencies. However, the challenges we face are people, who seem to be playing with the platforms giving no reasons or baseless grounds for the movement permit,” CP Kabera said.

He added: “Some people seem not to understand what essential services are or the purpose of the permit. For example, someone applies for movement clearance permit to go to Nyagatare or Rusizi arguing that they will go there on foot, which is literally impossible. Others request for a one month clearance when the lockdown or restrictions will be reviewed in the next 15 days.

A movement clearance is for one day to facilitate the applicant to go for essential services. Different relevant institutions have released detailed lists of essential services.”

According to the spokesperson, the process of reading and responding to such “unserious” applications affects others with sound and emergency reasons.

“You can imagine how many people were affected in the process of reading and responding to the 2,569 rejected applications! We urge the public to read carefully and understand the national directive and other guidelines issued by different institutions especially the Ministry of Local Government.

We also provided contact lines; 0788311606, 0788311456, 0788380841 and 0781753090 for the people to get further clarification and assistance because we know there might be those with valid reasons but fail to provide enough information required to get the movement permit.”