Prior to 2009, when the construction of the Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) started, Rugando-Kimihurura was simply a mixed-use Kigali neighbourhood where residential houses coexisted with office blocks and hangouts.

Rugando-Kimihurura is the neighbourhood that encompasses the enclave where the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, and Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) are located.

Kimihurura extends from the former location of Cadillac Club to the Ombudsman's Office, also known as ‘Ku Kabindi’, and continues upwards through Kigali Alliance Business Centre (KABC), formerly known as KBC, all the way to the Parliamentary building.

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Rugando on the other hand, which is also part of Kimihurura sector, is the area where KCC is and the former Ministry of Justice, stretching all the way down towards Kigali Independent University (UNILAK) and Romalo Guest House, towards Rwandex.

Over the last 15 years, the Kimihurura-Rugando axis has transformed tremendously into an uptown neighbourhood, almost changing face completely, with new establishments replacing old ones.

Obviously today, the most iconic feature of Rugando-Kimihurura is KCC, with its magnificent dome seen from nearly all corners of the city, with its outstanding lights at night, especially when it is draped in the national colours.

For someone like Joseph Nditurende, who has lived in the Kimihurura area since 1978, the transformation has been almost unreal. Much as the area was considered affluent even before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the changes over the past decade or so have been incredible.

Nditurende, 67, who has lived the bigger part of his life in Kimihurura and its surroundings, says that he saw first-hand the transformation, having lived here through different eras.

"When we arrived here, there were grass-thatched houses, banana plantations, and many mango trees. It was literally a huge forest,” said Nditurende, who currently lives in a part of Kimihurura known as ‘Mu myembe’.

He says the locality was called ‘Mu myembe’ because of the many mango trees that existed in that part of Kimihurura.

At the time, Kimihurura was a polarised suburb, with both the poor and the rich coexisting. The upper part, commonly known as ‘Mu kiminisitire’, next to the elite ‘Camp GP’ and ‘Primature’ was the affluent part, while the lower part ‘mu myembe’, was the perfect opposite, characterised by a slum, delinquency, and insecurity before 1994.

"At the time there were many thieves in this area. They were infamously known for wrapping a big rock in a piece of cloth and swinging it into the door of the target house and it would cave in, before robbing the household,” he said.

Similarly, while the roads in the well-off upper part of Kimihurura were paved, the ones in the less privileged part below were dirty and in bad shape.

"These tarmac roads you see here were not there. These were built by the current government,” Nditurende said, pointing out that the area which was nearly inhabitable back then, has since changed for the better.

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Right below the former Cadillac, a new road from Pharo School, or where former PSI used to be, connects ‘mu myembe’ with Rwandex-Kicukiro and it has since become a major road on which many others connecting Kimihurura and Gishushu neighbourhoods have been built.

Nditurende said the new roads have been key in transforming the area from a slum dwelling to a new modern neighbourhood with thriving businesses.

The Rugando-Kimihurura area is also littered with middle-class schools, popular hangouts, churches, coffee shops, office blocks, hotels, and apartments. Over the years, the slum areas have been dwindling.

Kimicanga, which used to be one of the biggest slums in Kigali, located in a swampy area, vanished from the map when the people who lived there were expropriated to pave the way for the construction of a new duo-carriage road connecting Kimihurura to Kacyiru.

The swamp stretching from where the former Carwash bar and restaurant was via former One Love to Kimicanga towards La Colombiere, has been reclaimed and reforested with bamboo. According to city authorities, the area is designated as an ‘entertainment zone’ under the Kigali City Masterplan.

A complete transformation

Perhaps the most transformed place in the Rugando-Kimihurura area is the area where KCC is located, together with Kigali Heights, KABC, and Career Centre, completing a ‘mini city’.

Where KCC sits today was partly a residential area and also home to what used to be the headquarters of the armed forces bank Zigama CSS. Kigali Heights is where the old Post Office (Iposita) used to be.

The KBC roundabout, commonly known as ‘k’Umugore’ is the only recognisable landmark from the past 15 years that remains. Other buildings that existed in the area, including the Top Tower Hotel and Ninzi Hotel no longer exist.

Marie-Paul Mukandekezi, 58, who has lived in the locality below the new road that was built to connect the ‘Polisi Denis’ roundabout to the Ninzi roundabout, told The New Times she has been witness to the development and transformation of the area.

"This neighbourhood changed in many aspects. I used to work from where this road was built in 2016. Anybody can see the difference this road made, compared to the small dirt road and tiny shops that were here before,” Mukandekezi said.

Though she had to move a distance below to pave the way for the road construction, Mukandekezi believes that such changes are inevitable and the developments have improved the entire neighbourhood, including security.

"Compared to how it was here before, one can see development. Initially, there were substandard houses and more of a slum setting, but now we are seeing high-rise buildings,” she said, pointing to Career Centre and Kigali Heights.

On the other side, opposite KCC, where the Ministry of Justice, the High Court, Supreme Court, and Prosecution used to be, is a massive construction site.

Earth movers and trucks are seen busy working on the foundation of Inzovu Mall, a multi-million-dollar shopping centre that is under construction where the building housing the said institutions used to be.

The mall which is being constructed by French firm Groupe Duval through their subsidiary Duval Great Lakes, will be the icing on the Rugando-Kimihurura transformation.

The shopping mall, which is expected to be completed by September 2025, will cost about $68 million (approx. Rwf 83 billion) and it will be Kigali’s largest shopping centre with a four-star hotel boasting 95 rooms, a contemporary office block, an extensive retail section, and spacious hypermarkets.

It will also have a diverse range of food and beverage outlets, elegant restaurants, fully-equipped conference rooms, reputable banks, leisure facilities, and a proposed duty-free shop.

Aimable Habineza, who was born and raised in the Rugando-Kimihurura area, said that sometimes people can be reluctant to change, especially when it comes to moving them to pave the way for development projects.

"Sometimes people are reluctant to move when they are told to do so because a certain development project is coming, but when you see what happened here, there is no doubt that development supersedes everything.

"There were old, dilapidated houses, acting as residences and shops here but when you look at this location, it is almost in the centre of town and a prime location. These changes were inevitable,” Habineza, 39, said.

Habineza, who was born in Nyenyeri village, previously known as ‘Mukagoyi’, the area behind or below the former Ninzi Hotel, said that even those who were born in the area acknowledge that national development comes first and they embraced the change.

From new hotels to apartments and high-rise office blocks, Rugando-Kimihurura has changed drastically over the past decade or so and there is more to come, given the up-and-coming projects such as Inzovu Mall that will change the aesthetics.