There is a sharp rise in numbers of the casual labour force in Kigali City and many people have linked this to the declining agricultural produce in rural areas.

Analysts largely attribute both factors to increase in rural-to-urban migration.

Yusuf Murangwa, a statistician at the National Institute of Statistics, said one of the reasons that have led to declining agricultural activities in rural areas is the number of people who move from rural areas to the city. 

People have increasingly shifted from agriculture to other jobs, he remarked.

"Results from a research show that in 2001 agriculture employed 90 percent (of the total population) but by 2007 it had reduced to about 80 percent,” Murangwa said.

He said people trying to get employment, find it hard to predict tomorrow’s situation.

Murangwa explained that most people from the rural areas are uneducated so they resort to temporary jobs or casual work when they move to the city.

Every morning, casual labourers are seen in swaths standing by roadsides and ready to be picked up in all Kigali suburbs.

Moses Karaki, an employee of Zibuco Construction Company said once casual laborers get employment, the employer must pay them conveniently at their desired time.

He said it is hard for companies to have the casual laborers as full-time workers. Thus, they are given temporary contracts.

"If we are to maintain them, it would mean paying them even when they are not working,” he said.

The mode of payment, he said, also varies from time, salary to sales, depending on the agreed terms.

Some casual labourers are paid cash while others are given meals, lodging, products or services worth the value of the would-be remuneration.

Jacqueline Nyiraneza, 18, said she had taken sometime without working.

She was brought to Kigali from Kibungo by someone who had wanted her to be a housemaid but the mission turned out to be unsuccessful.

She said she was given too much house work as opposed to what they had agreed upon, so she decided to quit and resorted to doing casual jobs whenever available.

She earns Frw1, 000 per day. She expects to get money and go back to Kibungo.

Wellars Hategekimana who works for Zibuco said he has never got a permanent job since 1983 when he completed his studies at Gitarama Technical School.

He earns an average of Frw2, 000 per day. He reports to work at 7a.m and leave 6p.m.

His wife is, too, a casual labourer at the Ministry of Health and they have four children, one of them already in school.

Jean Havugimana, a guard (askari) at a construction site said he earns Frw1, 000 per night but has never regretted because he was formerly without a job, and roaming the streets.

Angelique Mukakabano, a casual labourer and married to a professional builder, said there are bad days when both of them have no work.

"Such times are so tempting because we have to carry on with the responsibility of looking after our children,” she said.

"I’m now happy that am earning Frw1, 000 per day because there are times I don’t get even Frw100,” she added.

A research conducted by the National Institute of Statistics on employment modes showed that majority of women who were employed in 2005 (at the time of the survey), or who had worked during the 12 months earlier, had 86 percent in agriculture.

Those working in other fields were 13 percent. Five percent of women were in sales and services while four percent were into unskilled manual labour and one percent engaged in skilled manual labour.

Only three percent had technical or administrative jobs.

"The data by residence show that the proportion of women working in agriculture is higher in rural areas (92 percent), compared to the 44 percent in urban areas.

And it is much lower in Kigali, 27 percent,” the report states.

Outside Kigali City, the lowest proportion of women working in agriculture is 88 percent. 94 percent of women are not educated and are working in agriculture.39 percent of women have secondary or post-secondary education, the report showed.

Like women, the majority of men also work in agriculture (62 percent).

One in seven men performs unskilled manual labor (14 percent), and 11 percent perform skilled manual labour.

The most active age group in the unskilled manual workforce is 15 to 19 years of age, the research shows.

In the professional technical or managerial work, 30 to 34-year-olds dominate.

Ends