The City of Kigali is currently implementing more and new environmentally-friendly and innovative projects in public spaces. All this is part of a deliberate plan to make the city a clean, attractive and affordable home for everyone. The New Times’ Bertrand Byishimo had an interview with Kigali City’s Vice Mayor in charge of Urbanization and Infrastructure, Merard Mpabwanamaguruto discuss the developments of different city initiatives and the challenges that come along. Excerpts: Recently, the City of Kigali won a prestigious global award for an effective response against the Covid-19 pandemic, briefly take us through the journey leading to global recognition. The city of Kigali is currently focusing on the use of technical tools to improve the lifestyle of the citizens. Among the services that we are digitalizing, are also the waste management collection schemes. So it is in this way that during the contest, we submitted the waste management project to Bloomberg Philanthropies global mayor’s challenge, a project called, “Adopting proven rain water, harvesting technologies in informal communities”. We won the award, having been selected from 600 applicants, to 50 and then we came up among 15 globally and received a grand prize of $ 1 million. You have had some great environmental innovations in the city of Kigali. Why is this a priority to you? The city masterplan envisions Kigali to become a green city after being a vibrant and affordable place. So, we can’t be green without green public spaces, which is why we recognize the provision of public places as a key strategy for transforming the city into a green, sustainable and equitable place. That is why you see different ongoing initiatives to achieve this goal and as per the master plan, these areas will be increased across the city. So this takes priority on our agenda, because there is no way you can have a livable city without conserving its natural ecosystem because it is a prerequisite for overall development of our city, therefore, it is our duty to protect our residents and visitors from any environmentally-related hazards due to lack of green spaces. There are wonderful affordable housing projects recently completed and there are many more with stalled projects in the pipeline. Why so many and large housing projects? There is an ongoing change of demographic trends in Rwanda which impacts the population of Kigali. For example, Kigali’s population size which is currently 1.6 million is expected to be 3.8 million in 2050. Hence, it makes our city’s average urban density in Kigali to stand at 1,400 people per square kilometre which means that given the gap in housing units, we approximately need 859,000 new units to be constructed at least by 2050 to ensure that 3.8 million people are well settled. In other words, we need 27,000 houses per year until 2050 and in order to meet housing demands with different income ranges because of affordability, residential zones in Kigali with suitable densities and functions have been provided to fit the context and thus sales of housing share have been computed to meet the overall demand. Kigali supports affordable housing schemes in many ways…we provide infrastructures and subsidised land for investors wishing to invest in major residential housing projects. The government has established the Rwanda Housing Project which is implemented by the Development Bank of Rwanda and financed by the World Bank to the tune of around 150 million USD. The main aim of this project is to expand the housing finance and support capital market development in Rwanda, hence BRD lends the funds to the participating financial institutions at an interest rate of 6 percent and these participating financial institutions will lend the funds to eligible home buyers at maximum interest of 11 percent up to a period of 20 years, so the borrowers will access the mortgage through the participating financial institutions that have signed agreements with BRD. With such developers, the city of Kigali coordinates the availability of land and we are also attracting more investors to ensure that those homes are provided every year. For those spaces whose land is available, but construction activities are still stalling, we, the city of Kigali, are engaging investors to come and avail their funds to complete them. During such housing projects, citizens often protest ‘unjust’ expropriation including those from high-risk zones and demolition of illegally built houses. What is your take on this? All this aims at improving the wellbeing of the residents of the city of Kigali and it is our responsibility to protect our citizens from any risk that can put their lives in danger, so we are focusing more into mobilization and sensitization to ensure the mindset is improved on the matter. Having citizens living in informal settlements, those constructing without permits puts their lives in danger, so it is our duty to ensure our citizens are safe, so the decisions are not unjust. For public transport, in 2019, the City launched the Generation 2 transport system in the City of Kigali. How far have you gone in implementing this? We completed the feasibility study and started looking for operators who would meet the requirements for the G-2 transport system which was included increasing ICT usage, improve route planning, better vehicle mix and a strict scheduled service, but the process has been halted by the pandemic, so we are monitoring if the situation can improve and we resume the process. When can we expect to have the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, Smart bus stops done so as to address them? The feasibility study on this one has been conducted but it recommended that we start with Dedicated Bus Lanes (DBLs) and later be converted into a full bridged BRT system, so we completed the pilot study in the road City Centre-Giporoso carpark, and we are dealing with the World Bank so that we can get some finances and start the construction activities. For the smart bus stops, we are starting very soon, and we have entered an MoU with the partner, and together with him we are going to make sure we have 32 bus smart shelters by this year in the major city corridors. Rwanda is becoming a meeting destination for several countries, why do you think this is happening and what is your role in this? The city of Kigali’s vision is Kigali Yacu (Our Kigali) and we want our city to be the city of urban excellence in Africa, to make it more vibrant. Kigali is a livable city, promoting healthy and happy people, and community wellbeing. It is among the cleanest and safest cities in the world, and it has what it takes to hold international meetings and we ensure coordination with other stakeholders in order to increase its livability.
