Kigali’s housing challenge has been building for years. As the city’s population continues to grow, demand for decent and affordable housing has risen faster than supply, leaving many households with little choice but to settle in congested and often poorly planned neighbourhoods. The planned expansion of the Mpazi housing project in Nyarugenge District to provide more than 4,000 units is therefore significant. But perhaps more important than the numbers is the model itself. The Mpazi rehousing approach provides a practical answer to two urban challenges at once: increasing the housing units and upgrading informal neighbourhoods without necessarily uprooting the communities that already live there. That distinction matters. Urban redevelopment should not simply mean clearing settlements and relocating residents kilometres away from the places where they have built their lives. People choose where they live partly because of proximity to jobs, schools, markets, transport networks and social support systems. Moving them elsewhere, even into better houses, can create new economic and social difficulties. The Mpazi model demonstrates that redevelopment can be done differently. Residents contribute land, which is then developed more efficiently through higher-density housing, allowing more households to be accommodated on the same land while creating room for better infrastructure and public amenities. The model has already delivered 688 units in Mpazi and is informing similar developments elsewhere in Kigali. This is the kind of holistic thinking Kigali needs as it grows. Housing cannot be looked at simply as putting roofs over people’s heads. It must be considered alongside drainage, roads, sanitation, schools, markets, green spaces, transport and access to livelihoods. The Nyabisindu project, which follows the Mpazi model, for instance incorporates housing alongside schools, markets, green spaces and access roads. The next step should be to replicate this approach much more aggressively across informal settlements where conditions allow. Kigali has limited land, yet the demand for housing will only increase. The answer cannot be endless outward expansion or displacement of low-income communities from central neighbourhoods. It lies partly in using existing urban land more efficiently, building vertically and upgrading communities in situ. Authorities are already considering similar approaches for areas such as Mount Kigali, Jali and Rebero, where thousands of households live in settlements requiring structured redevelopment. That direction should be sustained. Mpazi has shown that upgrading neighbourhoods and protecting communities do not have to be competing objectives. If scaled carefully, with residents fully involved throughout the process, the rehousing model could become one of Kigali’s most effective tools for addressing its affordable housing deficit while steadily transforming informal settlements into planned, resilient and dignified neighbourhoods.
