This paper explores the social motivations that prompt Rwandan bilinguals to code-switch from Kinyarwanda to English, French and/or Kiswahili. The data were collected via ethnographic non-participant observation, oral interviews, focus group discussions and shorthand notes techniques. Examples of code-switching were examined and interpreted within Myers-Scotton’s Markedness Model, which was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The research findings were classified in terms of Myers-Scotton’s maxims of the sequential unmarked choice, code-switching itself as the unmarked choice, the marked choice and the exploratory choice, respectively. The main social factors that influence code-switching among Rwandan bilinguals were identified as signalling educated status; expressing different social identities; demonstrating measures of power, authority and prestige; narrowing or widening social distance; and maintaining relationships. These results support the hypothesis that code-switching is a strategy to maximise benefits for the interlocutors in a given conversation.