We may be tempted to think that Nyabugogo, an area known to for its endless human and traffic jam, and a home to both small and big businesses was always like that. Nyabugogo, currently in Kimisagara sector, Nyarugenge district, which hosts the country’s biggest taxi park, was a few decades ago home to crocodiles and other aquatic animals that used to enjoy the marshland and its friendly natural flora. 

It derived its name from Nyabugogo, a river which serves as a natural boundary between Kimisagara and Gatsata sectors from Nyarugenge and Gasabo district. 

Ibrahim Mbarushimana, a.k.a Braza, 64, has lived around Nyabugogo since childhood and has seen it grow from a swamp into one of Rwanda’s most economically strategic areas.

He says: "The main taxi park was originally a wetland until inmates from the Kigali Central Prison, commonly known as 1930, (a name that refers to its date of completion), decided to make good use of it.” 

Braza says the inmates turned the swamp into a brick-laying centre hence earning the name  Ku Mafuru (Brick oven land). Because of the booming brick activities, Nyabugogo got its first road with only a handful of cars owned by whites. 

"There were very few cars that one could even tell whose car was passing by even without seeing it,” said Braza.

The Nyabugogo modern butchery then followed in the 1960s. He says it was meant to provide meat to the white men. 

Braza, however, explains that even with these few developments, the place was not yet safe especially at night as hyenas were always on the lookout for a passer-by to have for ‘breakfast’. 

"It was always advisable to walk during the day,” Braza says. 

According to Braza, the cross-border trade was started to grow in 1970, with trucks transporting both goods and passengers. He says plenty of mats and other crafts were made from the papyrus in Nyabugogo and transported to Uganda. 

Petrorwanda now SP opposite Nyabugogo Taxi Park was allegedly the first petrol station and was meant to cater for the vehicles.

When he looks back to the old days, Braza is surprised that the quiet place has turned into one of the nosiest places in the country.