The centre of the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Photograph: Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images
It has been conceived as one of the continent’s most ambitious urban planning projects: a city of gleaming high-rise towers, arching pedestrian walkways, green spaces, fountains and an effective public transport system. The reimagined Kigali will be decentralised, with satellite towns, business, leisure and shopping districts, as well as a wetlands conservation area.
Twenty years after Rwandan capital was decimated by 100 days of killing, its population of 1.22 million is now expected to triple by 2040. The development plan has won international awards, but detractors argue that at best the vision is beautifully unrealistic, and at worst a work of fantasy that fails to take into account the demographic and economic challenges facing the east African country.
“Who are these buildings for, tourists, the creme de la creme of society?” asks one of the city’s intellectuals, who requests not to be named. “Fine, but we ask: where are normal people going to sleep tonight?”
In Kigali’s “one-stop centre” for construction, on the ninth floor of the glass-and-steel Grand Pension Plaza, architects’ impressions of the future cover the walls. From here it is possible to see half a dozen building projects already under way. Liliane Mupende, the director of urban planning and construction, takes pains to point them out, noting that some are financed by Rwandan investors and others by foreigners.
While the flashy promotional videos don’t dwell on where Kigali’s mainly low-earning residents will live, possible solutions for affordable housing are quietly on show in the office. “Creating affordable housing is one of our greatest challenges,” admits Mupende.
By demolishing informal housing – an estimated 70% of all dwellings in the capital – and creating more high-density areas, the city is “getting itself organised so future generations don’t face what we are facing now”, she says. Rent-to-own schemes are being considered and the government will enforce regulations that set quotas of affordable building for any purchased land. FULL STORY
