Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, is often lauded as “Africa’s cleanest city”. The country’s 2008 ban on non-biodegradable plastic is often mentioned as a cause. Another is that on the last Saturday of every month, people across the country commit time to projects aimed at improving the country’s public spaces, in a mandatory practice called Umuganda—loosely translated as “coming together to achieve a common purpose”.
But there’s a hidden cost to Kigali’s spotless reputation, and the poorest and most vulnerable are those who pay it.
A Human Rights Watch report (pdf) released today reveals how Rwandan police arbitrarily round up and detain people they deem, in the report’s wording, “undesirable”—street vendors, prostitutes, petty criminals, beggars and street people—with the intention of keeping the streets of Kigali tidy.
The report, titled “Why Not Call This Place a Prison?”, documents the experiences of 57 poor and vulnerable people who were unlawfully detained and ill-treated by Rwandan police at the Gikondo Transit Center, situated in a residential suburb of Kigali. FULL STORY
