Facts about Kigali city in Rwanda

Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda; it is the biggest city of Rwanda with a population of 850,000. The city is among the cleanest and well organized cities in Africa. Kigali was founded by the Germans in 1907 but only became Rwanda’s capital when the country became independent (from Belgium) in 1962.

The city has become very important in terms of tourism with the a number of Genocide memorial centre like Gisozi , local art and craft shops, National museums, fruit markets among others. Tourists enjoy Kigali city tour before or after Mountain gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National park.

Kigali is pretty, politically stable and hospitable people willing to welcome foreigner and to feed them with first hand information concerning Rwanda. While in Kigali you’ll hear people speaking Kinyarwanda, English, and French.

Kigali is always a stopover for the tourists and it is only 3 hrs drive to the Parc National Des Volcans that is internationally famous for mountain gorilla safaris in Africa. The park is also known for golden monkey tracking, adventurous trek to the Tombs of the Late Dian Fossey, Mountain Bishoke and Karisimbi hiking as well as caves exploration nearby. Flights into the capital arrive from Brussels, Nairobi, Entebbe, Addis Ababa, Kilimanjaro, Addis Ababa and Johannesburg. Tourists also arrive in Kigali by long-distance bus from Kampala Uganda, Nairobi Kenya and Bujumbura – Burundi.

 

From Kigali, tourists can also travel to Akagera national park to see a variety of wildlife. This is only 2-3 hour drive to Akagera and 5 hours drive to Nyungwe forest National park which is known as the home of chimpanzees and other 12 primates. Other activities here include canopy walk, bird watching, Tea Harvesting / community tours and forest walk among others.

Kigali International Airport is found in Kigali city centre. Therefore, air transport is easy in Rwanda since the Airport works 24 hours all year round.

The parliamentary building is found in Kigali city – Rwanda legislators find it easy to reach the building for meetings. In other words, Kigali city is an administration centre where by other government headquarters are found with in.

Kigali city is a cultural centre aiming at conservation and dissemination of the Rwandan cultural heritage and promotion of creative industry. More so, to allow all age groups to learn while entertaining themselves.

Other objectives include:
-To ensure the conservation of the living memory of the past by reconstituting history and life style of the Rwandan people through ages.

-To promote Public education by creating Educational techniques essentially interactive and complementary to those of the classic school institutions that allow the Rwandan public and foreign to widen their horizons in all domains of the knowledge especially in the evolution of the Rwandan society.

Contributing to the awareness of the multiple challenges to which the Rwandan people must cope considering requirements of the modern world.

Contributing to the promotion of the cultural creation in putting at the disposal of researchers, artists and craftsmen infrastructures and suitable facilities to encourage the blossoming of the Rwandan creative industry.

Kigali city is strategically is built in hilly country, sprawling across about four ridges and the valleys in between. The city centre is located on one of these ridges, with the main government area on another.