Kigali

Kigali (Kinyarwanda pronunciation: ki.ɡɑ́.ɾi), officially the City of Kigali also known as Kigali City (abbreviated as KGL), is the capital, largest city, and a province-level administrative unit of Rwanda. It sits near the middle of the country, in a land of rolling hills, valleys, and ridges joined by steep slopes. For the sector within Nyarugenge District, see Kigali (sector).

Kigali is a fairly young city. It was started in 1907 as a German government post and stayed a small town until it became the national capital when the country became independent in 1962. This moved the main government focus away from Huye, which used to be called Astrida. Today, Kigali has about 1,745,555 people as of 31 August 2022, roughly seven times the population of Gisenyi, the country's second largest city. The city also has a special center in Gashora, where refugees being moved from places of crisis, mainly from Libya and Yemen, can stay for a short time while they receive medical care and help with legal paperwork. UNHCR helps nearly 135,000 refugees in the area. Before it was cancelled in July 2024, the Rwanda asylum plan, also called the "Rwanda Plan," was an agreement to accept migrants sent back from the United Kingdom.

Kigali's history goes back to the 15th century, when the area was ruled by the Kingdom of Rwanda. At the start of the 20th century, it came under the German Empire. In 1907, Richard Kandt, the colonial resident, chose the site for his headquarters because of its central location, good views, and safety. Foreign merchants began trading in the city during the German time. Belgium later took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I. Kigali stayed the center of colonial government for Rwanda, but it was still a small city, with about 6,000 people at the time of independence. In 1994, the country went through the Rwandan genocide, a very sad time in which many people were killed. It began after the death of President Juvénal Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down near Kigali. The genocide caused great harm to the Tutsi people. Afterwards, the city grew quickly in population, and much of it was rebuilt.

Kigali is one of the five provinces of Rwanda. It is split into three districts: Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge. The city is home to the main residence and offices of the president of Rwanda and most government ministries. The biggest part of Kigali's gross domestic product comes from the service sector, but many people also work in farming, including small-scale subsistence farming. City leaders want to welcome visitors from other countries, for holidays, conferences, and exhibitions.

Etymology

The name Kigali comes from the Kinyarwanda prefix ki- and the suffix -gali, which together mean wide or broad. It was first used for Mount Kigali, probably because the mountain was broad. Later, the city was named after the mountain. Rwandan oral history says the name began in the 14th century.

Rwandan scholar Alexis Kagame studied the country's oral history and traditions. He wrote that the name came into use after King Cyilima I Rugwe took control of the area. A legend says Rugwe looked out over the land from the top of a hill and said burya iki gihugu ni kigali, which means "this country is vast".

History

See also: Timeline of Kigali

The first people in the area were the Twa, a group of hunter-gatherers who still live in Rwanda today. Later, Bantu groups, including the Hutu and Tutsi, began clearing forests for farming. According to oral history, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded in the 14th century near Lake Muhazi. Kigali was then a small part of it. The kingdom's capital was at Nyanza. The city of Kigali is generally dated to 1907, when German explorer Richard Kandt was appointed as the first resident of Rwanda and made the city his headquarters. He chose the site because it was central, had good views, and was secure. Kandt's house is now the Kandt House Museum of Natural History. In 1916, during World War I, Belgian forces took control of the city. The Northern Brigade, led by Colonel Philippe Molitor, captured Kigali. Much of the colonial government was run from Usumbura, so Kigali stayed fairly small.

Kigali became the capital when Rwandan independence came in 1962. The leaders chose it over Nyanza and the southern city of Butare because it was more central. The city grew steadily over the following years. In 1973, a bloodless military coup removed President Grégoire Kayibanda from power. During the Rwandan Civil War, the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front came close to attacking the city in 1993. In April 1994, President Habyarimana was assassinated when his plane was shot down near Kigali International Airport. This event was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide, a time of terrible violence in which many Tutsi and moderate Hutu people were killed. The Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of Kigali on 4 July. This day is now remembered as Liberation Day, a Rwandan national holiday.

Since the war, the city has grown quickly and much of it has been rebuilt with modern office buildings and roads. A masterplan adopted in 2013 aims to make Kigali a decentralised modern city by 2040. Along with this growth, people living in informal housing areas have been forced to leave their homes. Human Rights Watch has accused the government of moving poor people and children off the city's streets and taking them to other places against their wishes.

Geography

Kigali is in the centre of Rwanda. It uses Central Africa Time, which is two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time all year round. The City of Kigali is a province-level administrative unit. It was set up in 2006, along with the country's four provinces (Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western), as part of a change in how local government works. The city is split into three districts: Nyarugenge in the south west, Kicukiro in the south east, and Gasabo, which covers the northern half of the city. Buildings and roads cover about 70 per cent of the city's land.

Kigali is built on rolling hills. The city spreads across many ridges and valleys, with steep slopes between them. The average height of the city is 1,567 metres (5,141 feet) above sea level. The lowest parts, in the valleys, are about 1,300 metres (4,300 feet). Some hills, such as Rebero in the south, are much higher than the average. Taller peaks surround the city, including Mount Kigali, at 1,853 metres (6,079 feet), and Mount Jali to the north, at 2,071 metres (6,795 feet). The Nyabarongo River, part of the upper waters of the Nile, forms the western and southern edges of the city, though it lies mostly outside the built-up area. The largest river in the city is the Nyabugogo River, which flows between Mount Kigali and Mount Jali and joins the Nyabarongo. Most of the city's land is part of the Nyabugogo's drainage basin. Wetlands along the rivers help store water and protect the city from floods, but farming and building threaten them. The "Umusambi Village" is a restored marshland that gives shelter to at-risk grey crowned cranes.

Cityscape

Kigali's central business district (CBD) is on Nyarugenge Hill. People also call it mu mujyi ("in town") in Kinyarwanda. The first city was built here by Richard Kandt in 1907. Several of Rwanda's tallest buildings are here, including the 20-storey Kigali City Tower. The country's biggest banks and businesses are also in the CBD, along with the Mille Collines hotel, the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, the College of Science and Technology, and government buildings like the National Bank of Rwanda and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. To the southwest is the suburb of Nyamirambo. The Belgian colonial government built it in the 1920s for government workers and Swahili traders. Many of the traders were Islamic, so it became known as the "Muslim Quarter." In 2015, the travel publisher Rough Guides called Nyamirambo "Kigali's coolest neighbourhood." Nyabugogo, in the lowest part of the city, has Kigali's main bus and share taxi station.

Other suburbs spread east of the CBD across the many hills and ridges, forming an urban sprawl. The closest is Kiyovu. Its higher part, south of the main road KN3, has long been home to wealthy residents, with large houses and restaurants. The Rwandan president's residence is also there. Until 2008, the lower part of Kiyovu had informal settlements. That year, the government took over the houses and moved residents to other areas, including a new estate in Batsinda. The government plans a new business district there, but by late 2017 only a few buildings had been built. Other eastern suburbs include Kacyiru, where most government departments and the office of the president are located; Gisozi, home to the Kigali Genocide Memorial; Nyarutarama, which has the city's only golf course; Kimihurura; Remera; and Kanombe, where Kigali International Airport is located. In recent years, Kigali has been ranked the "cleanest city in Africa."

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Kigali has a tropical savanna climate (Aw). Because the city is high up, it is cooler than many other places near the equator.

Temperatures in Kigali usually range from 15 to 27 °C (59 to 81 °F) and change very little through the year. The city has two rainy seasons each year. One runs from February to June, and the other runs from September to December. Two dry seasons come between them. The main dry season runs from June to September and often has no rain at all. A shorter, milder dry season runs from December to February. April is the wettest month, with an average of 154 millimetres (6.1 in) of rain. July is the driest.

Global warming has changed the pattern of the rainy seasons. A report by the Strategic Foresight Group found that there are fewer rainy days each year, but more very heavy downpours. The group also says that Rwanda is warming quickly. Its average temperature rose by between 0.7 °C and 0.9 °C over the 50 years to 2013.

Demographics

In the 2022 Rwandan census, Kigali had 1,745,555 people. At independence in 1962, the city had about 6,000 people, mostly those linked to the Belgian colonial residency. The city grew after it became the capital, but it stayed fairly small until the 1970s because government rules limited rural-to-urban migration. During the 1994 genocide, many people were harmed or forced to leave the city, and the population dropped a great deal. After 1995, many refugees returned from Uganda and settled in Kigali and other towns, and the city grew quickly again. By the 2012 census, the population was 1.13 million, partly because the city's boundaries had been made larger. Most residents are young, and 73 per cent are under 30.

The service sector is the largest part of Kigali's economy. The World Bank estimated that services made up 53 per cent of GDP in 2014. A 2012 study by Surbana International Consultants put the figure at almost 62 per cent. Bringing visitors to the city is a priority for the city and the Rwanda Development Board. Kigali is the main arrival point for tourists visiting Rwanda's national parks and tracking mountain gorillas. New flights by RwandAir and places such as the Kigali Convention Centre have brought events to the city. These include the African Development Bank's 2014 Annual General Assembly and a 2018 summit of the African Union. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in June 2022, with Charles, Prince of Wales attending. It had been postponed from June 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture is the largest employer, but industry made up only 14 per cent of GDP in 2014. A special economic zone on Masoro Hill opened in 2014, and the Rwanda Stock Exchange launched in 2011. The city is also near deposits of cassiterite and tungsten. Cassiterite is mined in Rutongo. Much of the raw mineral is sent abroad, though some is processed at the Karuruma smelter.

Governance and politics

Kigali is one of the five provinces of Rwanda. A law from 2005 set its current borders. It gave the city government the job of planning the city's future and how it grows. Kigali is split into three districts: Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge. These districts are divided into 35 sectors. In January 2020, a new system gave the city council much more power, including control of the budget. The districts stopped being separate legal bodies. The council has eleven members. Six are chosen by voters, and five are picked by the president of Rwanda, with the approval of the cabinet. The mayor is chosen through a complicated electoral college process. As of 2023, the mayor is Samuel Dusengiyumva. Earlier mayors include Francois Karera, who served from 1975 to 1990, and Rose Kabuye, who was the first mayor after the genocide, from 1994 to 1997. Many national government offices are also in Kigali, including the office of the president, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate.

Kigali's police force is the Rwanda National Police. The Overseas Security Advisory Council says the police work professionally, but they have limited resources and lack some special skills. Even so, Kigali has a reputation as a fairly safe city. The Lonely Planet guidebook calls it "a genuine contender for the safest capital in Africa." The police credit their success to good daily operations and watching the city closely, along with community policing. Although the constitution allows freedom of assembly, public protests are rare. The Freedom House research group says that fear of being arrested stops most people from protesting.

Culture

Kigali was not always the centre of Rwanda's culture. Traditional dance began at the royal court in Nyanza, but many groups in the capital now perform it. These include the LEAF community arts group, which was started by eighteen children who had no homes and no parents, and Indatirwabahizi, a group linked to the city government. Drums are very important in traditional Rwandan music. The most popular modern music is hip hop, mixed with dancehall, rap, ragga, R&B and dance-pop. The Kigali Up music festival has been held every year since 2011. Many films about the Rwandan genocide were filmed in Kigali, including 100 Days, Sometimes in April, Shooting Dogs and Shake Hands with the Devil. The city's own film industry grew from the Rwanda Film Centre, started by journalist Eric Kabera. Its goal was to show other parts of Rwanda, not only the genocide. The name "Hillywood" comes from Rwanda's nickname "land of a thousand hills" and Hollywood. It refers to the Rwanda Film Festival and the film industry. In 2023, the first film festival called Kigali Cine Junction was held in the neighbourhoods of Nyamirambo and Biryogo. Its organisers included Samuel Ishimwe. American director Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing was shown on the opening night, and Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo was the special guest. The second edition in 2024 featured Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, and her film Omen was shown.

On Genocide Memorial Day, a national holiday observed every year on 7 April, the Kigali Genocide Memorial hosts Kwibuka. The president lights a "flame of hope" and speaks to the nation. Every last Saturday of the month, Kigali takes part in umuganda, a morning of required community service from 8 am to 11 am, when most normal services close. Kigali's food is similar to that of the rest of the country. Common staple foods include bananas, plantains (ibitoke), pulses, sweet potatoes, beans, and cassava. Many restaurants serve a mélange buffet with these foods, and chips are also common. Brochettes are the most popular evening food. The city also has Chinese, French, Indian and Italian restaurants. Popular drinks include ikivuguto, a fermented milk, and urwagwa, banana beer.

In the past, Butare was the country's main centre of tertiary education, including the Nyakibanda Major Seminary and the National University of Rwanda (UNR). Kigali did not become a major centre of learning until the late 1990s, when schools such as the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and the Kigali Independent University were founded. More followed in the 21st century, including the University of Kigali, Mount Kenya University, and Carnegie Mellon University's college of engineering. In 2013, the government joined several public institutions, including the Kigali ones, with the UNR and Umutara Polytechnic to create the University of Rwanda. In 2018, 50,594 students were enrolled at tertiary institutions in Kigali.

In 2018, Kigali had 239 primary schools and 143 secondary schools. The Ministry of Education and UNICEF say many children leave school between primary and secondary level. Reasons include weak maths and English skills, cost, household work, and few teaching resources. Kigali's top-performing secondary schools included FAWE Girls' School. Private schools such as École Belge and the International School of Kigali offer programmes like the International General Certificate of Secondary Education and the International Baccalaureate. On 14 September 2022, the government announced that from the 2022–2023 school year, parents would no longer pay school fees for pre-primary and primary students. Instead, they would contribute Rwf975 for a school feeding programme.

Sport

The biggest sports venue in Kigali is Amahoro Stadium in the Remera area. It was built in the 1980s and can hold 45,000 people. It is mainly used for association football. Most home games of the Rwanda national football team are played there. It was one of four stadiums used for the 2016 African Nations Championship, including the final. The Democratic Republic of the Congo won that final against Mali. The stadium also hosts rugby union matches, including those of the national team, as well as concerts and public events. The Amahoro complex has an indoor venue called the Petit stade and a Paralympic playing hall. The Kigali Arena, next to Amahoro Stadium, opened in 2019 and can hold 10,000 people. It hosts basketball, including the AfroBasket 2021 tournament. It also hosts handball, volleyball, and tennis. Other venues include the Pele Stadium, which seats 22,000, and the Rwanda Cricket Stadium in Gahanga. The cricket stadium opened in 2017. Rwanda's only golf course, the Kigali Golf Club in Nyarutarama, was being expanded to eighteen holes as of 2020.

Seven of the sixteen teams in the Rwanda Premier League are based in Kigali. Most of them play at several venues rather than at their own stadiums. The two most successful teams are also from the city. APR FC won eighteen championships between 1969 and 2020. Rayon Sports won nine in the same period. As of 2020, ten of the fourteen teams in Rwanda's National Basketball League played their home games in Kigali. This includes the two most successful clubs, Patriots BBC and Espoir BBC. They have won five and four league titles. In July 2025, the Zaria Court complex, which cost $26 million, opened in the capital. It was co-founded by Masai Ujiri. It supports Rwanda's goals in sports, culture, and creativity. Kigali was also chosen to host the 2025 UCI Road World Championships. This is the first time the event has come to Africa.

Infrastructure

Since 1994, the Rwandan government has spent more on the transport infrastructure of Rwanda. Countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and others have helped pay for it. Kigali is the centre of the country's road network. Paved roads connect it to most other large cities and towns. Roads also link it to other East African Community countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya. They also reach the Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu. The most important trade route is the road to the port of Mombasa. It goes through Kampala and Nairobi, and is called the Northern Corridor. In 2012 the city had 1,017 kilometres (632 mi) of road. Only fourteen per cent was paved, and many unpaved sections were poor and dangerous when it rained. Since the 1990s, authorities have slowly improved road surfaces. Most of the main routes have been upgraded to dual carriageways.

Few households own cars, so most residents use public transport. Minibuses were once the main way to travel. In the 2010s, many areas replaced them with larger buses. Some of these buses accept cashless payment with a "Tap & Go" card. Motorcycle taxis are very popular, and the government plans to replace petrol motorcycles with electric vehicles. Online booking has also been added for taxicabs. Bicycle taxis came back in 2014, after a time when they were banned.

International coaches run from Nyabugogo to places in East Africa, including Kampala. They reach Kampala via Gatuna and Kabale, or via Kagitumba. Some Kampala services continued on to Nairobi in Kenya. However, the Rwanda–Uganda border was closed in 2019 because of a disagreement between the two countries. As of 2020, Rwanda has no railways. It has agreed with Tanzania to build a standard-gauge railway to Isaka. There it could connect to the Central Line or the future Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway, and reach Dar es Salaam. Kigali International Airport is the country's main airport. Its busiest routes go to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Entebbe International Airport. A new Bugesera International Airport is being built to add more space. When it opens, it will be the country's largest airport. The domestic route to Kamembe Airport is the only one inside the country.

Kigali's electricity once came almost entirely from hydroelectric power stations on Lakes Burera and Ruhondo. These stations provided 90 per cent of Rwanda's electricity. Falling water levels and rising demand led to loadshedding in 2003–04. The government installed diesel generators to help, but they were expensive. Power cuts were still common in the late 2010s. The government and Rwanda Energy Group began investing in new power stations and power lines. By 2018, 82 per cent of Kigali's households had electricity. Most are connected to Rwanda's wide area synchronous grid.

Rwanda has five national referral hospitals, and four of them are in Kigali. One is the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, which is run by the Ministry of Health. It plans to move to the Masaka area. Another is King Faisal Hospital, which was built with help from the Saudi Fund for Development. In 2021 a new 300-bed hospital opened as a specialist centre for COVID-19 patients. Healthcare is partly paid for through local health insurance schemes called mutuelles de santé. These were available across the country by the mid-2000s.

Media

Eleven TV stations broadcast in Rwanda, and ten of them are based in Kigali. Two groups run these stations: the public Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA) and the Chinese company StarTimes. The channels are sent out from two transmitters near Kigali, one on Mount Jali and one in Gasabo. StarTimes also runs a paid TV service, along with two other networks, Azam and Tele10. A 2017 survey by the research firm GeoPoll found that Rwanda TV was the most popular station, with 45.2 per cent of the audience. Rwanda TV was once run by the government, but it was moved to the RBA in 2013.

Several radio stations also operate in Kigali. They have transmitters on Mount Jali and Mount Rebero, in the south of the city. In the same 2017 survey, the RBA-owned Radio Rwanda was the most popular, with 38.6 per cent of the national audience. All three of the most popular stations are based in Kigali. Some overseas radio stations can be heard on FM in Kigali. These include BBC News, Voice of America, and Deutsche Welle. Newspapers printed in Kigali include The New Times, the country's largest English-language paper, along with French and Kinyarwanda papers. Some international groups, such as Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House, say that Rwandan media does not have press freedom. They say the government often censors the media or makes it censor itself.