Thérèse’s Robocops Arrest Traffic in Kinshasha

Check into your neighbor’s house at 9 PM in Lagos, Nigeria and chances are one of the family members is not yet home. Our distant cousin who had stayed in the UK for most of his life visited and once exclaimed at our lack of concern for one of our friends who closes from the office at 5 PM. Apparently, we should have tried calling since the distance from home to his workplace is barely an hour. ‘What if he has been kidnapped’ he asked quite dramatically in our ears, but we knew he was not. In fact, at that very moment, it turned out that he was actually asleep in the taxi he ordered. He was finally getting good sleep, inside ‘hold up’ as we often say- in the frustratingly slow traffic that usually characterizes most of Lagos’ highways.

Apparently, the highways of Kinshasha, the capital city of DRC Congo were not too different either. The only thing they have that we do not is Therese Izay Kirongozi’s design- an army of robot traffic cops, strategically placed in areas of high mobility across Kinshasha to ease the flow of traffic and ensure that people get to their destinations less stressed and on time.

Thereze, a local to the core, had all her major education in Kinshasha. She really did not set out to make such a distinct impact using technology. In fact, Thereze wanted to be model but the best designs are those inspired by real problems, they are dictated by social problems and created to make meaningful change. ‘A robot that is doing road safety and road regulation are really Made in Congo,” said Thérèse, apparently in awe of the possibility itself.   An industrial engineer in electronics, and the head of Women’s Technology (Wotech), Thereze Izay Kirongozi’s and team’s ‘Robocops’ is an innovation created by Congolese, for Congolese, in Congo.

Made with aluminum to function properly in the equatorial climate of Kinshasha, the eight feet tall Robocops are powered with solar panels, the first set of these robots was commissioned in 2013 costing about 15,000 each and the second generation was released two years later, in 2015 for 27,500 each. The robots are equipped with cameras to report road traffic offenders, lights, to indicate traffic and even programmed with commands to enable them ‘speak’ to pedestrians and motorists alike.

“They don’t want money…the robots are doing their jobs correctly’’ were the words of a taxi driver in Kinshasha. Besides helping the mobile police navigate gridlocks effectively, the robots are not corruptible. They are not prone to the blatant bribery and crime perpetrated by some members of the armed forces on major city highways across Africa.

With flexible arms, rotatable chests, politeness, and funny humanoid faces, Therese Kirongozi’s innovation definitely makes  Kinshasa’s highways a lot friendlier for commuters. The goal for her and her team at Wotech is to make these robots available everywhere they are needed across Africa, and the world in fact.