Kigali is the largest and capital city of Rwanda, a country with a thousand hills, and it is within a close proximity to the nation’s geographic centre.
The city is nestled in the centre of Rwanda and it is divided into three administrative districts, which include; Nyarugenge, perched in the south west, Kicukiro in the south east, and then Gasabo, which occupies the northern half of the city’s territory.
Kigali lies in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes, and it is also perched between the two mountains of; Mount Kigali and Mount Jali, both of which have altitudes over 1,800 meters (5,906 ft), well as the lowest areas of the city have an altitude of 1,800 meters (5,906 ft).
Geologically, the city lies in a granitic and meta-sedimentary region, with lateritic soils on the hills and alluvial soils in the valleys.
The Kigali city current mayor is called Chantal Rwakazina, who was appointed in May 2018 following the exit of Pascal Nyamulinda, well as the president remains Paul Kagame, for Rwanda as a whole.
Climate of Kigali
Kigali comprises of a temperate tropical highland climate, with lower temperatures than are typical for equatorial countries because of its high elevation. The city’s typical daily temperature ranges between 12 and 27 °C (54 and 81 °F), with little variation through the year.
It consists of two rainy seasons in the year – the first one runs from February to June and the second phase of it runs from September to December.
These are separated by two dry seasons where the major one is from June to September, of which there is often no rain at all, well as a shorter and less severe one is from December to February. The wettest month is April, with an average rainfall of 154 millimeters (6.1 in), well as the driest month is arguably July.
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 characterize Rwanda as a fast warming country, with an increase in average temperature of between 0.7 °C to 0.9 °C over fifty years.
Kigali’s Demographics
As of the 2012 census, the population of Kigali was 1.13 million people/residents of whom 51.7 percent of them were males and 48.3 percent were females.
The Rwanda Environment Management Authority asserted that the high male-to-female ratio was due to a tendency of men migrating to the city in search of work outside the agricultural sector, while their wives remained in a rural home.
The population is young, with 73 percent of residents being less than 30 years old, and 94 percent under the age of 50 years old.
In 2014, the proportion of people classified as living in poverty within Kigali was 15 percent compared with 37 percent for Rwanda as a whole.
The 2012 census recorded a workforce of 487,000 in Kigali, and the city’s biggest employment sector is agriculture, fishing and forestry, covering 24 percent of the workforce; utilities and financial services with 21 percent; trade 20 percent and government 12 percent.
