37 Facts About Kigali

Kigali remained the seat of colonial administration for Rwanda but Ruanda-Urundi's capital was at Usumbura in Burundi and Kigali remained a small city with a population of just 6,000 at the time of independence.

Post-genocide Kigali has experienced rapid population growth, with much of the city rebuilt.

City of Kigali is one of the five provinces of Rwanda, with boundaries set in 2006.

Name Kigali comes from the Kinyarwanda prefix ki- combined with the adjective suffix -gali, which means wide or broad.

Rwandan scholar Alexis Kagame, who did extensive research into the country's oral history and traditions, wrote that the name Kigali came into use after King Cyilima I Rugwe completed a conquest of the area.

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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.

Kigali chose to make his headquarters in Kigali due to its central location in the country, and because the site on Nyarugenge Hill afforded good views and security.

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.

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, while Kigali's population remained at around 6,000 until independence in 1962.

Opposition politicians based in Kigali were killed on the first day of the genocide, and the city then became the setting for fierce fighting between the army and the RPF including at the latter's base.

Kigali is located in the centre of Rwanda, at 1°57'S 30°4'E.

Geologically, Kigali is in a granitic and metasedimentary region, with lateritic soils on the hills and alluvial soils in the valleys.

The "Umusambi Village" is a restored marshland in Kigali that serves as a shelter for vulnerable grey crowned cranes.

Kigali is known for being very corrupt free and was ranked the cleanest city in Africa.

Under the Koppen climate classification, Kigali is in the tropical savanna climate zone, straddling the subtropical highland climate.

At the time of independence in 1962, Kigali had 6,000 inhabitants, consisting primarily of those associated with the Belgian colonial residency.

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.

Kigali is the economic and financial hub of Rwanda, serving as the country's main port of entry and largest business centre.

Kigali is the major arrival point for tourists visiting Rwanda's national parks and tracking mountain gorillas, and has its own sites of interest such as the Kigali Genocide Memorial and ecotourist facilities, as well as bars, coffee shops and restaurants.

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.

Kigali is a province-level city, one of the five provinces of Rwanda.

From January 2020 a new administrative system for Kigali was introduced, after a law was passed by the national parliament the previous year.

Kigali was not historically the hub of Rwanda's cultural heritage.

Rwanda and Kigali have a growing popular music industry, influenced by African Great Lakes, Congolese, and American music.

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Kigali has a growing domestic film industry which began in the early 2000s with the Rwanda Film Centre, founded by journalist Eric Kabera.

Kigali's cuisine is similar to that of the rest of the country.

The first higher-education institution in Kigali was the Institut Africain et Mauricien de statistique et d'economie appliquee, which was founded in 1976, but the city did not become a major centre of learning until the second half of the 1990s.

In 2018 Kigali had 239 primary schools with 203,680 pupils enrolled, and 143 secondary schools with an enrolment of 60,997.

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 30,000.

The Kigali Arena is a 10,000-capacity indoor arena next to Amahoro Stadium, which opened in 2019.

Kigali was awarded hosting of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, marking the first time the organisation's flagship event visits Africa.

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.

Car ownership in Kigali is low, with just six per cent of households possessing one as of 2011.

Historically most passenger journeys within Kigali were in minibuses, operating under a share taxi system with sixteen passengers per bus.

The largest of these is the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali, which is governed by the Ministry of Health and receives most of its funding from the government.

Various overseas radio stations are broadcast on FM in Kigali including BBC News, Voice of America, and Deutsche Welle.