Focus: As Kigali turns 100: The City gets congested

As Kigali turns 100 years, the challenge of controlling rural-urban migration from congesting the capital and other major towns remains a big task to city administrators and district mayors. From Kimironko, Egide Nsengiumva and his friends wake up everyday only to find themselves at the junction between the roads leading to the prison, Kibagabaga, and the market. Members in his group carry all they possess, which in most cases are spades, hoes, axles or the linen on their bodies.Their retinue for the day is a test of patience and luck. They say, “We just come here hoping that the construction companies renovating the road or installing telephone cables give us work, some of us are praying that one of the restaurant owners nearby could use our services for a paltry Frw300 as wage for a working day from 6:00am to anywhere after 9:00pm.” If no one in the group finds a task, “We just hang about here in waiting,” they continue to say. They are waiting for nothing in particular, but only the rules of survival are at work. The prey is the Rwandan Franc; in economic terms the product on sale is their physical strength which is quite in huge supply in Rwanda today. Today, Kigali’s population ranges from 857,719 to over a million. This is according to the National Institute of Statistics; by 2002 estimates, 52 percent are youths. This has ensured the creation of a large number of rural-urban migrations. According to the 2005 National population policy, the country’s population is extremely young. In 1996, 49 percent of the population was less than 15 years old. Today, 60 percent is less than 20 years old with only 3 percent above 65 years. This implies a very high rate of dependency which currently stands at 104 percent. This has put enormous pressure on health-care, food, education, employment and shelter. The shortage of such basic necessities in rural areas has forced many young people to flock urban centres in search of any livelihood. This is how Nsengiyumva and his friends ended up in Kimironko. “Most of us have been here for a year, we came hoping to find work and develop ourselves. The poverty in our villages is very humiliating. Because it is hard to get a job here, we end up teaming among ourselves and sharing a single room where the number varies from 4 to 6,” says Robert Muganga who is part of the group that hangs around the Kimironko roundabout. Nsengiyumva laughs but looks offended by the suggestion that it would be better to remain in his village and start a career as a farmer, “We have no land at home,” and he won’t answer any question about how he grew up in the village with no land. The National Agricultural policy states that People who have no land comprise 11.5 percent of the households in Rwanda. Land shortage is very acute in Cyangugu, Kigali and Gisenyi areas, which explains why rural-urban migration has been much more prominent here. Poverty was cited as the reason why most of the youths in Kimironko, Remera and Nyamirambo left their villages and opted for the city. But like the late Lucky Dube sang in Feel Irie, (no man can hide away from his troubles, since they are part of him they always know where to find him). Poverty has now caught up with them in towns. Many go without a single meal the whole day and clearly look malnourished while others cannot afford to buy water and soap to wash their bodies and dirty linen. Back to their home villages, they have no land where to practice agriculture or to build a house. The population pressure has not only reduced cultivatable land but also ensured that government plans to reduce poverty register very little progress. It is not a measure of good progress that today 59.6 percent Rwandans up from the 64 percent UNDP standard figure of fours years ago, are living below the poverty line. These poverty indicators are far worse in rural areas from where the youths migrate. In rural areas, 68 percent Rwandans are in utter poverty. This has reduced agricultural production and enhanced youthful people to run to major urban centres in search of dead-end jobs as security guards, house help chores and public transport stouts in Nyabugogo and Remera. Kimironko suburb is home to some of the most affluent citizens in Rwanda. In the evenings, the Kibagabaga junction leading to Kimironko prison and the market are bustling with plenty of activities. Cars cruise at break-neck speeds and houseboys rush to markets with paper bags to purchase food items. In Nyamirambo, where most youths that come to Kigali city end up staying, many girls-who cannot find casual jobs at construction sites or in restaurants, end up working in hair plaiting salons or barbershops. While many others with no skills to trade embark on the less straining jobs of prostitution. On the other hand, many young boys work as mobile call centres. They are always on the move with mobile land line phone sets looking for anybody in need of making a call on a pay phone and selling airtime cards. On the sides along the entire length of the street, domestic scenes unfold. Women are cooking dishes of one kind or another, hawking chewing gum, crackers and aspirin, and doing laundry work. In reality, there is another reason: apartments are small for the bigger numbers. Besides, spending the day on the street enables one to participate in social life more than staying home. As Kigali City turns 100 years since its establishment, such a picture gives enough evidence to the big challenges not only present, but also lying ahead of city administrators and district mayors to control the rural-urban migration. Ends