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Kigali ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relatively new city. It has been Rwanda's economic, cultural, and transport hub since it was founded as an administrative outpost in 1907, and became the capital of the country at independence in 1962, shifting focus away from Huye.
In an area controlled by the Kingdom of Rwanda from the 15th century, and then by the German Empire in the beginning of the 20th century, the city was founded in 1907 when Richard Kandt, the colonial resident, chose the site for his headquarters, citing its central location, views and security. Foreign merchants began to trade in the city during the German era, and Kandt opened some government-run schools for Tutsi Rwandan students. Belgium took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I, forming the mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. Kigali remained the seat of colonial administration for Rwanda but Ruanda-Urundi's capital was at Usumbura (now Bujumbura) in Burundi and Kigali remained a small city with a population of just 6,000 at the time of independence.
Kigali grew slowly during the following decades. It was not initially directly affected by the Rwandan Civil War between government forces and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which began in 1990. However, in April 1994 Rwanda's President Juvénal Habyarimana was killed when his aircraft was shot down near Kigali. His death was followed by the Rwandan genocide against Tutsi, which killed over 1,000,000 Tutsi. The RPF resumed fighting, ending a cease-fire of more than a year. They gradually took control of most of the country and seized Kigali on 4 July 1994. Post-genocide Kigali has experienced rapid population growth, with much of the city rebuilt.
The city of Kigali is one of the five provinces of Rwanda, with boundaries set in 2006. It is divided into three districts—Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge—which historically had control of significant areas of local governance. Reforms in January 2020 transferred much of the districts' power to the city-wide council. The city also hosts the main residence and offices of the president of Rwanda and most government ministries. The largest contributor to Kigali's gross domestic product is the service sector, but a significant proportion of the population works in agriculture including small-scale subsistence farming. Attracting international visitors is a priority for city authorities, including leisure tourism, conferences and exhibitions.
EtymologyEdit
The name Kigali comes from the Kinyarwanda prefix {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} combined with the adjective suffix {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which means wide or broad. This was originally applied to Mount Kigali, most likely because the mountain itself was broad and wide, with the city later being named after the mountain.<ref name="cia._Rwan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Rwandan oral history, the name originated in the 14th century.<ref name="LegacyPart1"/> Rwandan scholar Alexis Kagame, who did extensive research into the country's oral history and traditions,Template:Sfn wrote that the name Kigali came into use after King Cyilima I Rugwe completed a conquest of the area. The legend states that Rugwe viewed the territory from the top of a hill and said burya iki gihugu ni kigali, which translates to "this country is vast".<ref name="LegacyPart1"/>
HistoryEdit
Pre-colonial periodEdit
The earliest inhabitants of what is now Rwanda were the Twa, a group of aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who settled the area between 8000 and 3000 BC and remain in the country today.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They were followed between 700 BC and AD 1500 by a number of Bantu groups, including the Hutu and Tutsi, who began clearing forests for agriculture.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to oral history, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded in the 14th century on the shores of Lake Muhazi, around Template:Convert east of modern Kigali.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The early kingdom included Kigali but it was a small state at this point in its history with larger and more powerful neighbours, Bugesera and Gisaka.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
A member of the Gisaka dynasty killed Rwanda's king Ruganzu I Bwimba in the 16th century, but Ruganzu's son Cyilima I Rugwe fought back with help from Bugesera and was able to expand Rwanda's territory.Template:Sfn In the late 16th or early 17th century, the kingdom of Rwanda was invaded from the north by the Banyoro of modern-day Uganda.Template:Sfn The king was forced to flee westward, leaving Kigali and eastern Rwanda in the hands of Bugesera and Gisaka.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The formation of a new Rwandan dynasty in the 17th century by the mwami (king), Ruganzu II Ndoli, followed by eastward invasions and the conquest of Bugesera, marked the beginning of the Rwandan kingdom's dominance in the area.Template:Sfn The capital of the kingdom was at Nyanza, in the south of the country.Template:Sfn
Colonial periodEdit
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The founding of Kigali is generally dated to 1907, when German administrator and explorer Richard Kandt was appointed as the first resident of Rwanda, and established the city as the headquarters.Template:Sfn<ref name="48HoursInKigali"/><ref name="Centenary"/> Alexis Kagame promoted an alternative theory that the city was established as a capital under Cyilima I Rugwe in either the 1300s or the 1500s. There is little direct evidence for this, however, and the more recent kings of the pre-colonial era are known to have been based at Nyanza.<ref name="Centenary">Template:Cite news</ref> Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi had been assigned to Germany by the Berlin Conference of 1884,Template:Sfn forming part of German East Africa, and Germany established a presence in the country in 1897 with the formation of an alliance with the king, Yuhi V Musinga.Template:Sfn Kandt arrived in 1899, to explore Lake Kivu and search for the source of the Nile.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
When Germany decided in 1907 to separate the administration of Rwanda from that of Burundi, Kandt was appointed as resident.Template:Sfn He chose to make his headquarters in Kigali due to its central location in the country,<ref name="HistoryOfCity"/> and also because the site on Nyarugenge Hill afforded good views and security.<ref name="HistoryOfCity"/> Kandt's house, located close to the central business district (CBD), was the first European-style house in the city,<ref name="LegacyPart1"/> and remains in use today as the Kandt House Museum of Natural History.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite a German ordinance written in 1905, which prohibited "non-indigenous natives" from entering Rwanda,Template:Sfn Kandt began permitting the entry of foreign traders in 1908, which allowed commercial activity to begin in Rwanda.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Kigali's first businesses were established by Greek and Indian merchants,Template:Sfn with assistance from Baganda and Swahili people.Template:Sfn Items traded included cloth and beads.Template:Sfn Commercial activity was limited and there were only around 30 firms in the city by 1914.Template:Sfn Kandt also opened government-run schools in Kigali, which began educating Tutsi students.Template:Sfn
Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I, with Kigali being captured by the Northern Brigade led by Colonel Philippe Molitor on 6 May 1916.Template:Sfn The Belgians were granted sovereignty by a League of Nations mandate in 1922, forming the mandatory territory of Ruanda-Urundi.Template:Sfn In early 1917, Belgium attempted to assert direct rule on the mandate, placing King Musinga under arrest and sidelining Rwandans in the judiciary.Template:Sfn In this period, Kigali was one of two provincial capitals, alongside Gisenyi.Template:Sfn An agricultural-labour shortage caused by the recruitment of locals to assist the European armies during the war, the plundering of food by soldiers, and torrential rains which destroyed crops, led to a severe famine at the start of the Belgian administration.Template:Sfn The famine, combined with the difficulty of governing the complex Rwandan society, prompted the Belgians to re-establish the German-style indirect rule at the end of 1917.Template:Sfn Musinga was restored to his throne at Nyanza, with Kigali remaining home to the colonial administration.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This arrangement persisted until the mid-1920s,Template:Sfn but from 1924 the Belgians began once more to sideline the monarchy, this time permanently.Template:Sfn Belgium took over control of dispute resolution, appointment of officials and collection of taxes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Kigali remained relatively small through the remainder of the colonial era, as much of the administration took place in Ruanda-Urundi's capital Usumbura, now known as Bujumbura in Burundi. Usumbura's population exceeded 50,000 during the 1950s and was the mandate's only European-style city,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while Kigali's population remained at around 6,000 until independence in 1962.<ref name="HistoryOfCity">Template:Cite news</ref>
Post-independence eraEdit
Kigali became the capital upon Rwandan independence in 1962.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Two other cities were considered: Nyanza, as the traditional seat of the mwami, and the southern city of Butare (known as Astrida under the Belgians), due to its prominence as a centre of intellect and religion.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The authorities eventually chose Kigali because of its more central location. The city grew steadily during the following decades; in the early 1970s the population was 25,000 with only five paved roads, and by 1991 it was around 250,000.Template:Sfn On 5 July 1973 there was a bloodless military coup, in which minister of defence Juvénal Habyarimana overthrew ruling president Grégoire Kayibanda.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Military officers had gathered in Kigali for a military tattoo to commemorate Independence Day a few days earlier, and they began occupying government buildings from dawn on 4 July.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Businesses closed for a few days, and troops patrolled across the city,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but the coup was bloodless and life continued as normal, historian Gérard Prunier describing the reaction as "widespread popular relief".Template:Sfn According to a US Department of State diplomatic cable sent shortly afterwards, the disruption following the coup was short-lived and the army had left the streets by 11 July.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Kigali was not directly affected during the first three years of the 1990–1994 Rwandan Civil War, although the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) did come close to attacking the city in February 1993.Template:Sfn In December of the same year, following the signing of the Arusha Accords, a United Nations peacekeeping force was established in the city, and the RPF were granted use of a building in the city for their diplomats and soldiers.Template:Sfn In April 1994 President Habyarimana was assassinated when his plane was shot down near Kigali International Airport. Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the attack.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide, in which 500,000–800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal 500,000–800,000 is the range of scholarly estimates listed on the third page of the paper.</ref> Opposition politicians based in Kigali were killed on the first day of the genocide,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the city then became the setting for fierce fighting between the army and the RPF including at the latter's base.Template:Sfn The RPF began attacking from the north of the country, and gradually took control of most of Rwanda between April and June.Template:Sfn After encircling Kigali and cutting off its supply routes,Template:Sfn they began fighting for the city itself in mid-June.Template:Sfn The government forces had superior manpower and weapons but the RPF fought tactically,Template:Sfn and were able to exploit the fact that the government forces were concentrating on the genocide rather than the fight for Kigali.Template:Sfn The RPF took control of Kigali on 4 July,Template:Sfn a date now commemorated as Liberation Day, a Rwandan national holiday.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Since the war and genocide, the city has experienced rapid population growth as a result of migration from other areas, as well as a high birth rate.Template:Sfn Buildings that were heavily damaged during the fighting have been demolished, much of the city has been rebuilt, and modern office buildings and infrastructure now exist across the city. A masterplan, adopted by the city and the government in 2013 and supported by international finance and labour, seeks to establish Kigali as a decentralised modern city by 2040.<ref name="KigaliSparkles"/> The development has been accompanied by forced eviction of residents in informal housing zones, however, and groups such as Human Rights Watch have accused the government of removing poor people and children from the city's streets and moving them to detention centres.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
GeographyEdit
Kigali is located in the centre of Rwanda, at 1°57′S 30°4′E.Template:Sfn Like the rest of Rwanda it uses Central Africa Time, and is two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+02:00) throughout the year.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city is coterminous with the province of Kigali, one of the five provinces of Rwanda introduced in 2006 as part of a restructuring of local government in the country. The city has boundaries with the Northern, Eastern and Southern provinces.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It is divided into three administrative districts—Nyarugenge in the south west, Kicukiro in the south east, and Gasabo, which occupies the northern half of the city's territory.Template:Sfn The built-up urban area covers about 70 per cent of the municipal boundaries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kigali lies in a region of rolling hills,Template:Sfn with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes.Template:Sfn It is situated between Mount Kigali and Mount Jali,<ref name="HistoryOfCity"/> both of which have elevations of more than Template:Convert above sea level,<ref>Template:Cite map</ref> while the lowest areas of the city have an altitude of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn Geologically, Kigali is in a granitic and metasedimentary region, with lateritic soils on the hills and alluvial soils in the valleys.Template:Sfn
The Nyabarongo River, part of the upper headwaters of the Nile,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> forms the western and southern borders of the administrative city of Kigali,Template:Sfn although this river lies somewhat outside the built-up urban area.Template:Sfn The largest river running through the city is the Nyabugogo River, which flows south from Lake Muhazi before flowing west between Mount Kigali and Mount Jali, and draining into the Nyabarongo.Template:Sfn The Nyabugogo is fed by various smaller streams throughout the city, and its drainage basin contains most of Kigali's territory,Template:Sfn other than areas in the south which outflow directly to the Nyabarongo.Template:Sfn The rivers are flanked by wetlands, which act as a water store and flood protection for the city, although these are under threat from agriculture and development.Template:Sfn The "Umusambi Village" is a restored marshland in Kigali that serves as a shelter for vulnerable grey crowned cranes.
CityscapeEdit
Kigali's central business district (CBD), sometimes known by the Kinyarwanda term mu mujyi ("in town"), is on Nyarugenge Hill and was the site of the original city founded by Richard Kandt in 1907.<ref name="HistoryOfCity"/> The house that Kandt lived in is now the Kandt House Museum of Natural History.<ref name="LegacyPart1">Template:Cite news</ref> The CBD is situated towards the western edge of the built-up area,<ref name="HistoryOfCity"/> as the terrain to the east was more suitable for development of the expanding city than the high slopes of Mount Kigali to the west. Several of Rwanda's tallest buildings, including the 20-storey Kigali City Tower, are located in the CBD, as are the headquarters of the country's largest banks and businesses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other buildings in the CBD include the upmarket Serena, Marriott and Mille Collines hotels,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the national university's College of Science and Technology,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and government buildings such as the National Bank of Rwanda and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
To the south west of the CBD, and also on the Nyarugenge Hill, is the suburb of Nyamirambo.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This was the second part of the city to be settled, being built in the 1920s by the Belgian colonial government as a home for civil servants and Swahili traders. The latter group were mostly members of the Islamic faith, which led to Nyamirambo being known as the "Muslim Quarter".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nyamirambo's Green Mosque (Masjid al-Fatah) is the oldest mosque in Kigali, dating to the 1930s. Travel publisher Rough Guides described Nyamirambo in 2015 as "Kigali's coolest neighbourhood", citing its multi-cultural status and an active nightlife, which is not found in much of the rest of the city.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> North of Nyamirambo, and west of the CBD is Nyabugogo. Situated at the lowest part of the city, in the valley of the eponymous Nyabugogo River, Nyabugogo is home to Kigali's principal bus and share taxi station, with vehicles departing for numerous domestic and international destinations.<ref name="Tumwebaze2">Template:Cite news</ref>
The remainder of Kigali's suburbs lie to the east of the CBD, with an urban sprawl spanning the many hills and ridges. Kiyovu is the closest, on the eastern slopes of Nyarugenge Hill. The higher part of Kiyovu, to the south of main road KN3, has been home to wealthy foreign residents and Rwandans since colonial times, with large houses and high-end restaurants.<ref name="KiyovuSymmetry"/> The residence of the Rwandan president is located in this area.<ref name="NatGeo">Template:Cite news</ref> The lower part of Kiyovu, north of the main road, consisted until 2008 of informal settlements that had formed after independence, when strict residence rules were relaxed.<ref name="KiyovuSymmetry">Template:Cite news</ref> The houses in lower Kiyovu were expropriated by the government in 2008 with residents compensated or relocated to other areas, including to a purpose-built estate in the Batsinda neighbourhood.
The government has plans to create a new business district in lower Kiyovu to complement the existing CBD, although as of late 2017 there had been only a handful of buildings erected there.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other eastern suburbs include Kacyiru, home to most government departments and the office of the president;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gisozi, where the Kigali Genocide Memorial is located;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nyarutarama, an affluent suburb housing the city's only golf course;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kimihurura; Remera and Kanombe, Template:Convert from the CBD on the eastern edge of the city, where Kigali International Airport is located.Template:Sfn Kigali has been ranked the "cleanest city in Africa" in recent years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ClimateEdit
Under the Köppen climate classification, Kigali is in the tropical savanna climate (Aw) zone, with temperatures that are cooler than typical for equatorial countries because of its high elevation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The city has an average daily temperature range between Template:Convert, with little variation through the year.<ref name="WorldMeteorologicalOrganization">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are two rainy seasons annually, from February to June and from September to December. These are separated by two dry seasons: the major one from June to September, during which there is often no rain at all, and a shorter and less severe one from December to February.Template:Sfn The wettest month is April, with an average rainfall of Template:Convert, while the driest month is July.<ref name="WorldMeteorologicalOrganization"/> Global warming has caused a change in the pattern of the rainy seasons. According to a report by the Strategic Foresight Group, change in climate has reduced the number of rainy days experienced during a year, but has also caused an increase in frequency of torrential rains. Strategic Foresight also characterise Rwanda as a rapidly warming country, with an increase in average temperature of between 0.7 °C to 0.9 °C over the 50 years to 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DemographicsEdit
As of the 2012 Rwandan census, the population of Kigali was 1,132,686,Template:Sfn of which 859,332 were urban residents.Template:Sfn The population density was Template:Convert.Template:Sfn At the time of independence in 1962, Kigali had 6,000 inhabitants, consisting primarily of those associated with the Belgian colonial residency.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It grew considerably after being named as the independent nation's capital,Template:Sfn although it remained a relatively small city until the 1970s due to government policies restricting rural-to-urban migration.<ref name="RurbanAfrica">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The population reached 115,000 by 1978, and 235,000 by 1991.<ref name="RurbanAfrica"/> The city lost a large fraction of its people during the 1994 genocide,Template:Sfn including those killed and those who fled to neighbouring countries.<ref name="RurbanAfrica"/> From 1995 the economy began to recover and large numbers of long-term Tutsi refugees returned from Uganda.<ref name="RurbanAfrica"/> Many of these refugees settled in Kigali and other urban areas, due to difficulty in obtaining land in other parts of the country.Template:Sfn This phenomenon, coupled with a high birth rate and increased rural-to-urban migration,Template:Sfn meant that Kigali reattained its previous size quite quickly and began to grow even more rapidly than before.<ref name="RurbanAfrica"/> The population exceeded 600,000 in 2002, and in the 2012 census had almost doubled to 1.13 million, although this was in part because the administrative boundaries of the city had been expanded.Template:Sfn
As of the 2012 census, 51.7 per cent of residents were male.Template:Refn The Rwanda Environment Management Authority hypothesised that the high male-to-female ratio was due to a tendency for men to migrate to the city in search of work outside the agricultural sector, while their wives remained in a rural home.Template:Sfn The population is young, with 73 per cent of residents being less than 30 years old,Template:Sfn and 94 per cent under the age of 50.Template:Refn The city has a higher proportion of 14–35 year olds than the Rwanda average, with 50.3 per cent versus 39.6 per cent nationwide.Template:Sfn Children between birth and seventeen (i.e. < 18) years of age have a below-average share of the total, with 39.6 per cent against 47.7 per cent nationally. These differences are attributed by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) to the migration of working-age Rwandans from rural to urban areas.Template:Sfn Similarly, Kigali has a lower level of over-60s, with 2.6 per cent, than the Rwanda average of 4.9 per cent, also likely reflecting the tendency for non-working-age inhabitants to live rurally.Template:Sfn In 2014, the proportion of people classified as living in poverty within Kigali was 15 per cent, compared with 37 per cent for Rwanda as a whole.Template:Sfn The 2012 census recorded a workforce of 487,000 in Kigali.Template:Sfn The city's biggest employment sector is agriculture, fishing and forestry, covering 24 per cent of the workforce; utilities and financial services with 21 per cent; trade 20 per cent and government 12 per cent.Template:Sfn
In 2018 Kigali scored 0.632 on the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of life expectancy and health, education, and standard of living.<ref name="GlobalDataLab"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This figure had risen or remained the same every year since 1992, except during the civil war, when the figure was 0.223. It is also the highest of Rwanda's five provinces with the next highest, the Northern Province, recording an HDI of 0.531.<ref name="GlobalDataLab"/> Analysts at the World Bank attribute the gains in HDI seen across Rwanda as a whole to a "strong focus on homegrown policies and initiatives", which have accompanied economic growth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As with Rwanda as a whole, Christianity is the dominant religion in Kigali. In the 2012 census, 42.1 per cent of the city's inhabitants identified as Protestant with a further 9.1 per cent following Adventism, which was classified separately. Catholics formed 36.8 per cent of the population. Islam is more prevalent in Kigali than elsewhere in Rwanda, with 5.7 per cent of people following the faith compared with 2.0 per cent nationwide. Jehovah's Witnesses form 1.2 per cent and other faiths 0.3 per cent, while those who profess no religion number 3.0 per cent.Template:Sfn
EconomyEdit
Kigali is the economic and financial hub of Rwanda, serving as the country's main port of entry and largest business centre.<ref name="KigaliSparkles">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The NISR does not maintain detailed economic data for subnational entities in Rwanda, but economists have used various measures to estimate the city's output. A 2015 working paper by the World Bank Policy Research unit used the amount of light visible at night in different regions as a proxy for relative gross domestic product (GDP), and found that the three districts of Kigali represented 42 per cent of Rwanda's total night-light output.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When translated, this gives a total city GDP of approximately US$1.8 billion or $1,619 per capita,Template:Refn compared with a national average of $436 per capita.Template:Sfn Another 2015 World Bank study measured the total turnover of registered companies in the country, as reported to the Rwanda Revenue Authority, and found that 92 per cent of these were from the city of Kigali. However, the authors noted that this figure excluded turnover from small-scale farming, and was also inflated for companies headquartered in Kigali with revenue generated elsewhere in Rwanda.Template:Sfn Official statistics classify economic activity as either "farm" or "non-farm", and Kigali accounts for 39 per cent of non-farm waged employees in the country.Template:Sfn
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In 2013, the economy was reported to be dependent on foreign aid and illegal resource extraction from the DRC.Template:Sfn The largest contributor to Kigali's economy is the service sector. The World Bank estimates that services contributed 53 per cent of GDP in 2014,Template:Sfn while a 2012 study by Surbana International Consultants put the figure at almost 62 per cent.Template:Sfn Activity within the service sector includes retail, information technology, transport and hotels, and real estate. The city authorities have prioritised business services for expansion, constructing several modern buildings in the CBD such as the Kigali City Tower. Attracting international visitors is a priority for both the city and the Rwanda Development Board,Template:Sfn including leisure tourism, conferences and exhibitions. Kigali is the major arrival point for tourists visiting Rwanda's national parks and tracking mountain gorillas,<ref name="KigaliTheNewEvents"/> and has its own sites of interest such as the Kigali Genocide Memorial and ecotourist facilities, as well as bars, coffee shops and restaurants.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Expansion of destinations by carrier RwandAir and building of new facilities such as the Kigali Convention Centre has attracted events to Kigali including the African Development Bank's 2014 Annual General Assembly,<ref name="KigaliTheNewEvents">Template:Cite news</ref> and a 2018 extraordinary summit of the African Union.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in the city in June 2022, with attendees including Charles, Prince of Wales, and national leaders,<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> having been postponed from June 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The city's largest employment sector is agriculture, fishing and forestry, representing 24 per cent of the workforce.Template:Sfn Farmland comprised over 60 per cent of the land within the city's boundaries in 2012,Template:Sfn mostly in the outer areas surrounding the urban core.Template:Sfn As is the case nationwide,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> much of the agriculture in Kigali is subsistence farming on small plots, but there are some larger modern farms close to the city, particularly in Gasabo district, which has the highest average area of cultivated land per household in the country.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other major employment areas in the city are government, which comprises 12 per cent of the workforce, transportation and communication, construction, and manufacturing. The NISR classifies 21 per cent of the workforce as being employed in "other services" such as utilities and financial services,Template:Sfn the latter including banking, pensions, insurance, microfinance,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Rwanda Stock Exchange, which launched in 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Industry in Kigali formed only 14 per cent of the city's GDP in 2014, focused on a small industrial zone set up in the 1970s.Template:Sfn Challenges for the sector include the high cost of importing raw materials into a land-locked country, as well as substandard infrastructure and a lack of skilled workers.<ref name="FT">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2011, the parliament passed a law establishing special economic zones in Rwanda,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the first of which was established in 2014 on Masoro Hill in Gasabo district, close to Kigali International Airport.<ref name="KSEZI">Template:Cite news</ref> Companies operating within the zone benefit from good infrastructure, availability of land and transport links, as well as tax breaks. It attracted 61 businesses in its first year of operation, manufacturing products such as paper and foam mattresses.<ref name="FT"/> As the zone grew over subsequent years, further businesses relocated there from other parts of the capital such as the Gikondo Industrial Park.<ref name="KSEZI"/> The city sits close to deposits of cassiterite, an ore used to obtain tin, as well as tungsten. Cassiterite is mined in the town of Rutongo, around Template:Convert north of Kigali,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while tungsten is mined at Nyakabingo, a similar distance away.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Much of the raw mineral is exported out of Rwanda for processing, but there are some local processing facilities.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This includes the Karuruma smelter in the northern suburbs of Kigali, which was built in the 1980s and was able to produce up to Template:Convert of pure tin per year as of 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Governance and politicsEdit
Kigali is a province-level city, one of the five provinces of Rwanda. The area under the city's jurisdiction has been expanded several times since Rwandan independence,Template:Sfn the current boundaries being established through a 2005 law as part of local-government restructuring. The law gave the city government responsibility for strategic planning and urban development, as well as liaising with the three constituent districts and monitoring the districts' development plans.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Like other provinces, Kigali is divided into districts—Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge—which are in turn divided into 35 sectors.Template:Sfn
From January 2020, a new administrative system for Kigali was introduced, after a law was passed by the national parliament the previous year.<ref name="OperatingNewStructure">Template:Cite news</ref> Under the previous system, in effect since 2002, power was significantly devolved to the districts which were led by their own mayors, managing infrastructure and levying taxes, around 30 per cent of which were passed to the city-wide authority.<ref name="KigaliCityStructure">Template:Cite news</ref> The changes, implemented with the goal of reducing bureaucracy and inefficiency,<ref name="OperatingNewStructure"/> gave the city council much greater power including control of the budget.<ref name="GetsActingMayor"/> The districts ceased to be separate legal entities, their mayors being replaced by district executive administrators appointed by the national government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The city council is composed of eleven individuals, down from 33 in the old system.<ref name="GetsActingMayor">Template:Cite news</ref> Six of the council members are directly elected by the public, each district electing one man and one woman. The remaining five members are appointed by the president of Rwanda, subject to the approval of the cabinet. Each council member serves for a renewable five-year term.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The executive branch of the city government is headed by the mayor, who is elected via a complex electoral college system, with the electorate voting for delegates at the sub-sector village level, who go on to elect other delegates through each level of the administrative hierarchy.<ref name="KigaliCityStructure"/> The mayor and two deputy mayors form the executive committee, which reports to the council and implements its decisions.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2023 the incumbent mayor is Samuel Dusengiyumva.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Notable past mayors include Francois Karera, who held the post from 1975 to 1990 under the presidency of Juvénal Habyarimana, and Rose Kabuye, who had fought with the RPF during the Rwandan Civil War and was the first post-genocide mayor from 1994 to 1997.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Day-to-day budget and staff management are the responsibility of a city manager,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> appointed by the prime minister.<ref name="GetsActingMayor"/>
In addition to the city government, most Rwandan government offices are located in Kigali, particularly in the suburbs of Kacyiru and Kimihurura.<ref name="SeeksOwnOffices">Template:Cite news</ref> This includes Village Urugwiro in Kacyiru, which is the office of the president,<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> and the Chamber of Deputies and Senate in Kimihurura.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Crime and policingEdit
In common with the rest of the country, policing in Kigali is provided by the Rwanda National Police (RNP).<ref name="Our Mission and Vision">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The city falls within RNP's central division, which is headed as of 2020 by Assistant Commissioner of Police Felly Rutagerura Bahizi.<ref name="Our Mission and Vision"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The United States government's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) praises the RNP's professionalism, but notes that it lacks specialist skills in dealing with policing tasks such as investigation, counter-terrorism, bomb disposal, and forensics. OSAC also notes that the RNP has limited resources on the ground, stating that police are often "unable to respond to an emergency call in a timely manner", and that police patrols are more focused on terrorism than crime.<ref name="OSAC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Despite this, Kigali has a reputation for being a relatively safe city. The Lonely Planet guidebook describes it as "a genuine contender for the safest capital in Africa", while Bert Archer of BBC Travel described it as "clean and safe".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 2015 interview with The New Times, then-commander of the central division Rogers Rutikanga cited "efficient operations and daily surveillance" as the means by which the city was policed. Rutikanga noted that there were crimes related to burglary, drugs, assault and robbery, as well as petty crime and pickpocketing, but that numbers were kept low through community policing and engagement with schools, businesses, municipal government and social service providers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In its advice to overseas visitors, OSAC states that there is a "moderate risk from crime in Kigali", but notes that such crime is rarely violent. It cites pickpocketing and petty theft as the biggest concerns for foreigners within the city.<ref name="OSAC"/> Rwanda as a whole has lower crime rates than other countries in East Africa. In 2014–15, the number of intentional homicides per 100,000 people was 2.52 in the country, compared with 11.52 for Uganda, 6.95 for Tanzania, 4.79 for Kenya, and 4.52 for Burundi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Although the constitution allows freedom of assembly, with protests and demonstrations allowed with a permit, such gatherings in Rwanda are rare. The US political freedom research institute Freedom House states that fear of arrest serves as a deterrent for most such protests, and that the police often disperse protests even when they have official permission.<ref name="OSAC"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Those gatherings which do take place are mostly peaceful and crime-free. OSAC's report assesses the city's terrorism risk as "minimal".<ref name="OSAC"/>
CultureEdit
Kigali was not historically the hub of Rwanda's cultural heritage. For example, the country's traditional dance, a choreographed routine consisting of three components, originated in the royal court at Nyanza.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, the capital is now home to many groups which perform the dance including the LEAF community arts troupe,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> whose founding members were eighteen homeless orphaned children,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Indatirwabahizi, a cultural troupe affiliated with the city government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Drums are of great importance in traditional Rwandan music; the royal drummers enjoyed high status within the court of the mwami. Drummers play together in groups of varying sizes, usually between seven and nine in number.Template:Sfn Traditional music and songs are performed in venues across the city by acts such as the Gakondo Group led by Massamba Intore.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Rwanda and Kigali have a growing popular music industry, influenced by African Great Lakes, Congolese, and American music. The most popular genre is hip hop, with a blend of dancehall, rap, ragga, R&B and dance-pop.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Since 2011, the Kigali Up music festival has been held annually in July or August.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Artists from Rwanda and other countries perform music in a variety of styles including reggae and blues, with audiences of several thousands. Some of the musicians also give lessons to attendees during the festival. The Hobe Rwanda Festival, held in September, features music as well as dance and local art.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A number of films about the Rwandan genocide have been filmed in Kigali, including 100 Days, Sometimes in April, Shooting Dogs and Shake Hands with the Devil. Others, such as Hotel Rwanda, were set in the city but filmed in other countries. Several of the films featured survivors as cast members.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Kigali also has a growing domestic film industry which began in the early 2000s with the Rwanda Film Centre, founded by journalist Eric Kabera. One of the centre's goals was to diversify the subjects covered by Rwandan films beyond the genocide theme, presenting other aspects of the country.<ref name="IndependentHillywood"/> In 2005, Kabera inaugurated the Rwanda Film Festival which takes place annually at venues in the capital and elsewhere,Template:Sfn giving it the nickname "Hillywood", a portmanteau word combining Rwanda's nickname "land of a thousand hills" with Hollywood.<ref name="IndependentHillywood">Template:Cite news</ref> The term is also used for Rwanda's film industry in general.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On Genocide Memorial Day, a national holiday observed every year on 7 April, the Kigali Genocide Memorial hosts Kwibuka, during which the president lights a "flame of hope" and addresses the nation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This is followed by an official week of mourning and, on 4 July, the Liberation Day holiday.Template:Sfn Along with the rest of Rwanda, the last Saturday of each month in Kigali is umuganda, a morning of mandatory community service lasting from 8Template:Nbspam to 11Template:Nbspam.<ref name="48HoursInKigali">Template:Cite news</ref> All able-bodied people between 18 and 65 are expected to carry out community tasks such as cleaning streets or building homes for vulnerable people. Most normal services close down during umuganda, and public transportation is limited.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Kigali's cuisine is similar to that of the rest of the country. For those reliant on subsistence agriculture, local staple foods include bananas, plantains (known as ibitoke), pulses, sweet potatoes, beans, and cassava (manioc).Template:Sfn These staple foods are also served in restaurants across the city, often as part of a mélange, a self-service buffet meal which can also include meat, chips or fish.Template:Sfn Cassava leaves are often combined with onions and other ingredients to make a stew dish known as isombe.Template:Sfn Brochettes are the most popular food when eating out in the evening, usually made from goat but sometimes tripe, beef or fish.Template:Sfn The city has restaurants serving dishes from outside the country, including Chinese, French, Indian, and Italian.Template:Sfn Popular drinks include ikivuguto, a fermented milk, and urwagwa banana beer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
EducationEdit
In colonial and pre-genocide Rwanda, Butare was the country's principal centre for tertiary education. Early colleges such as the Nyakibanda Major Seminary, founded in 1936, and three 1960s establishments including the National University of Rwanda (UNR), were all located in the southern city.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first higher-education institution in Kigali was the Institut Africain et Mauricien de statistique et d'économie appliquée, which was founded in 1976,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but the city did not become a major centre of learning until the second half of the 1990s. At that time, the public Kigali Health Institute (KHI), Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), and Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) were founded, along with private universities the Kigali Independent University (ULK) and the University of Lay Adventists of Kigali (UNILAK).Template:Sfn Further institutions were added in Kigali in the 21st century, including the public School of Finance and Banking (SFB) in Gikondo and the private University of Kigali,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as branches of foreign universities such as Mount Kenya University and Carnegie Mellon University's college of engineering.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2018, there were a total of 50,594 students enrolled at tertiary institutions in Kigali, with a total of 28 separate campuses.Template:Sfn
In 2013, the government implemented significant changes in the country's public university system, intended to improve efficiency by removing duplicated courses of study and eliminating discrepancies in student assessment between the different schools. The previously independent Kigali institutions KHI, KIST, KIE and SFB were merged with three others from outside the city—the UNR, Nyagatare-based Umutara Polytechnic and Ruhengeri's Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry—creating the consolidated University of Rwanda. It has six constituent colleges,Template:Sfn spanning nine campuses, three of which are in Kigali. These are the Gikondo campus, which serves as the university's headquarters and is home to its business and economics programmes, the Nyarugenge campus on the former KIST site, which houses the sciences, architecture and engineering, and the Remera campus which covers medicine, nursing, dentistry and health sciences.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2018 Kigali had 239 primary schools with 203,680 pupils enrolled,Template:Sfn and 143 secondary schools with an enrolment of 60,997.Template:Sfn The large rate of drop-out between primary and secondary, a phenomenon which occurs across Rwanda, is attributed by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF to insufficient numeracy and English skills in primary-school finishers, cost, the need for children to contribute to household labour, and insufficient teaching resources.Template:Sfn The city's three districts occupied the top positions in the national table of exam results at primary level in 2019, although this success was not replicated at secondary level in which rural districts were the top performers. The top-three performing individual secondary schools offering the Rwandan syllabus—FAWE Girls' School, Petit Séminaire St Vincent de Ndera, and Lycée Notre-Dame de Cîteaux—were all in Kigali, however.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city also has a number of private schools, which target wealthy Rwandans and expatriates, including the Green Hills Academy, École Belge, and the International School of Kigali. These schools, which charge high fees, offer international programmes such as the International General Certificate of Secondary Education and the International Baccalaureate which enable students to study at universities worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 14 September 2022, the government announced that, starting with the academic year 2022–2023, parents will no longer pay school fees for students in pre-primary and primary, however, they will contribute Rwf975 for school feeding program. This will help parents with limited means be able to send their children at school.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
SportEdit
The largest sports venue in Kigali is Amahoro Stadium, in the Remera area of the city, which was built in the 1980s and has a capacity of 45,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ZambianWatchdog">Template:Cite news</ref> The stadium is used primarily for association football, playing host to most Rwanda national football team home games as well as domestic fixtures.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was one of four stadia used for fixtures in the 2016 African Nations Championship including the final, in which the Democratic Republic of the Congo beat Mali.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The stadium also hosts rugby union fixtures, including those of the national team,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as concerts and public events.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Amahoro complex includes an indoor venue, commonly known by the French name Petit stade, and a Paralympic playing hall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Kigali Arena is a 10,000-capacity indoor arena next to Amahoro Stadium, which opened in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The arena hosts sports such as basketball, including the AfroBasket 2021 tournament,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as handball, volleyball, and tennis.<ref name=rha>Template:Cite news</ref> Other venues in the city include the 22,000-capacity Pele Stadium and the Rwanda Cricket Stadium in Gahanga, which opened in 2017.<ref name="SoccerwayStadia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rwanda's only golf course, the Kigali Golf Club, is based in Nyarutarama;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as of 2020 it is being expanded to eighteen holes and hopes to attract regional tournaments in future.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Seven of the sixteen teams in the association football Rwanda Premier League are based in Kigali. Most of these do not have their own stadia and play fixtures at multiple venues including Amahoro Stadium, Nyamirambo Regional Stadium and various smaller grounds.<ref name="SoccerwayStadia"/> The country's two most successful teams are based in the city: APR FC, who won eighteen championships between 1969 and 2020, and Rayon Sports, who won nine in the same period.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2020, ten of the fourteen teams in Rwanda's National Basketball League play their home games in Kigali, with venues including Club Rafiki and the Integrated Polytechnic Regional College Kigali, as well as the Amahoro Stadium's Petit stade and the Kigali Arena.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Refn This includes the two most successful clubs Patriots BBC and Espoir BBC, who have won five and four league titles respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Kigali was awarded hosting of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, marking the first time the organisation's flagship event visits Africa.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
InfrastructureEdit
TransportationEdit
The Rwandan government has increased investment in the transport infrastructure of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, with aid from the United States, European Union, Japan, China, and others. Kigali is the centre of the country's road network, with paved roads linking the city to most other major cities and towns in the country.Template:Sfn It is also connected by road to other countries in the East African Community, namely Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya, as well as to the eastern Congolese cities of Goma and Bukavu; the most important trade route for imports and exports is the road to the port of Mombasa via Kampala and Nairobi, which is known as the Northern Corridor.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Within the city there was a total of Template:Convert of road in 2012, although only fourteen per cent of this was paved road and many of the unpaved sections were of poor quality and dangerous during rainfall. The authorities have been making gradual improvements since the 1990s, increasing the quality of the surfaces and also upgrading most of the city's arterial routes to dual-carriageway.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Car ownership in Kigali is low, with just six per cent of households possessing one as of 2011.Template:Sfn Therefore, most residents rely on public transport for journeys within the city and elsewhere. Historically, most passenger journeys within Kigali were in minibuses, operating under a share taxi system with sixteen passengers per bus.Template:Sfn In the 2010s, these were phased out in many areas of the city, in favour of larger buses,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> some of which permit cashless payment through a "Tap & Go" card and online bookings.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Motorcycle taxis are a very popular form of private-hire vehicle, with 10,486 drivers registered with cooperatives or syndicates in 2012, a figure which is likely an underestimate.Template:Sfn The government has announced plans to replace the country's fleet of petrol-powered motorcycles with electric vehicles,<ref name="voan_Rwan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and online booking and metering has been rolled out for both motorcycles and taxicabs in recent years, such as Yego Cab and Move Ride by Volkswagen.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bicycle taxis operate in some areas of the city, being reintroduced in 2014 after a period in which they were banned.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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International coaches run from Nyabugogo to other destinations in East Africa. Until 2019, this included the Ugandan capital Kampala, which was reached either via Gatuna and Kabale or via Kagitumba.<ref name="ViaGatuna">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The journey via Gatuna on the overnight service takes around ten hours.<ref name="ViaGatuna"/> Some Kampala services continued to Nairobi in Kenya.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2019 the Rwanda–Uganda border was closed by the Rwandan government amid a diplomatic dispute over rebel groups and the treatment of Rwandan nationals in Uganda.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Some travellers began using the Rusomo Falls border crossing to reach Kampala via Tanzania, a much longer journey.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:As of Rwanda has no railways, but the government has agreed with Tanzania to construct a standard-gauge railway linking Kigali to Isaka, where passengers could connect with either the Central Line or with the future Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway, to reach Dar es Salaam.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Kigali International Airport (KIA), in the eastern suburb of Kanombe, is the nation's and the city's principal airport. The busiest routes are those to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Entebbe International Airport, which serves Kampala;<ref name="CentreForAviation">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> there is one domestic route, between Kigali and Kamembe Airport near Cyangugu.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> With capacity for growth at KIA limited, the government commissioned the new Bugesera International Airport, Template:Convert south-east of Kigali,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with construction beginning in 2017. It will become the country's largest when it opens, complementing the existing Kigali airport.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The national carrier is RwandAir, and the country is served by seven foreign airlines.<ref name="CentreForAviation"/>
PowerEdit
Kigali's electricity supply was, until the early 2000s, generated almost entirely from hydroelectric sources; power stations on Lakes Burera and Ruhondo provided 90 per cent of Rwanda's electricity.Template:Sfn A combination of below average rainfall and human activity, including the draining of the Rugezi wetlands for cultivation and grazing, caused the two lakes' water levels to fall from 1990 onwards; by 2004 levels were reduced by 50 per cent, leading to a sharp drop in output from the power stations.Template:Sfn Coupled with this, demand had been increasing since the 1980s as the economy grew, particularly in Kigali.Template:Sfn In 2003–04, the national electricity company was forced to reduce output from the power stations, necessitating widespread loadshedding.Template:Sfn As an emergency measure, the government installed diesel generators north of the city; by 2006 these were providing 56 per cent of the country's electricity, but were very costly.Template:Sfn Power outages remained a frequent occurrence in the late 2010s.<ref name="newt_Rwf1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This prompted the government and national supplier Rwanda Energy Group to invest in a programme of new peat-fired, hydroelectric, and methane power stations across Rwanda as well as the construction and repair of power lines.<ref name="newt_Kiga">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As of 2018, 82 per cent of Kigali's households had access to electricity, with the government targeting 100 per cent provision within seven years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most of these households are supplied by Rwanda's wide area synchronous grid, with only between 2 and 4 per cent of households in the three districts relying on off-grid access in 2020.<ref name="reg._Offg">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HealthcareEdit
Rwanda has five national referral hospitals, of which four are located in Kigali.Template:Sfn The largest of these is the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (UTH-K), which is governed by the Ministry of Health and receives most of its funding from the government.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn UTH-K has 519 beds and employs 155 personnel.<ref name="chuk_CHUK">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="dnb._THEU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Founded in 1918, it is currently in Kigali CBD, but plans to relocate to a new larger site in the Masaka area of the city.<ref name="chuk_CHUK"/><ref name="newt_Cons">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The other national referral hospitals are King Faisal Hospital, which was constructed in the late 1980s with assistance from the Saudi Fund for Development, the Rwanda Military Hospital and the Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital.Template:Sfn<ref name="kfh._WhoW">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In addition to the national hospitals, the city also contains three provincial hospitals, at Kibagabaga, Masaka, and Kacyiru.<ref name="1R">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="2R">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2021, a new 300-bed hospital opened in Nyarugenge district, designated as a specialist referral centre for COVID-19 patients.<ref name="ktpr_Nyar">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Under the Twubakane Decentralisation and Health Project, responsibility for primary healthcare has moved from the national level to district level. Healthcare centres in the city are run as a mixture of public sector, government-assisted and private sector, with some traditional healers also operating.Template:Sfn Not all residents have easy access to these facilities, however, with some having to walk more than 30 minutes to reach the nearest centre.Template:Sfn The government has devolved the financing and management of healthcare to local communities, through a system of health insurance providers called mutuelles de santé. The mutuelles were piloted in 1999, and were made available nationwide by the mid-2000s, with the assistance of international development partners.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
MediaEdit
There are a total of eleven different terrestrial television stations broadcast in Rwanda, ten of which are domestic. All of the ten domestic channels are headquartered in Kigali.Template:Refn These stations are provided by two organisations—the public Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), and Chinese firm StarTimes. They are broadcast from two transmitters in the Kigali area, one on Mount Jali, and one in Gasabo.Template:Sfn In addition to the terrestrial channels, StarTimes also run a pay TV service along with two other networks, Azam and Tele10.<ref name="newt_Azam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A 2017 survey by research firm GeoPoll found that Rwanda TV is the most popular station in the country, with an audience share of 45.2 per cent, followed by TV1 with 9.3 per cent, and TV10 with 6.4 per cent.<ref name="GeoPoll">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rwanda TV was historically run by the government, but in 2013 it was transferred to the RBA.<ref name="olds_Rwan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A number of radio stations also operate in Kigali, with transmitters located at Mount Jali and at Mount Rebero, the south of the city. The 2017 GeoPoll survey found that RBA-owned Radio Rwanda was the most popular, with 38.6 per cent of the national audience, followed by Kiss FM with 9.3 per cent and KT Radio with 7.3 per cent.<ref name="GeoPoll"/> All three of these are based in Kigali.<ref name="rba._Abou"/><ref name="kiss_102.">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ktra_Twan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Various overseas radio stations are broadcast on FM in Kigali including BBC News, Voice of America, and Deutsche Welle.<ref name="BBCMedia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A number of newspapers are published in Kigali, including The New Times, the country's largest English-language publication, La Nouvelle Relève, in French, and Kinyarwanda papers such as KT Press and Imvaho Nshya.<ref name="libr_Rwan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to international observers such as Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House, the Rwandan media does not have press freedom and is routinely censored or forced to self-censor by the government.<ref name="BBCMedia"/>
See alsoEdit
- Inema Arts Center
- Kigali Car-Free Zone
- Kigali Convention Centre
- Kigali Genocide Memorial
- Amahoro Stadium
- BK Arena
- Nyandungu Urban Wetland Eco-Tourism Park
Explanatory notesEdit
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
General and cited referencesEdit
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External linksEdit
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