Animal exhibition to boost cultural tourism

The Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (IMNR) is calling upon Rwandans to visit ‘living animals’ which will go on display later this month as part of the country’s drive to promote cultural tourism.According to IMNR director Alphonse Muliisa, the animals, an assorted species of reptiles, will be displayed at the Natural History Museum, commonly known as Kandt House, in Nyarugenge, Kigali.The exhibition, which will start with 16 reptiles on October 18, will be conducted in partnership with Dr. Harald Hinkel, a biologist from Germany.Some of the reptiles have already been brought to the museum, while others are being collected from Nyungwe and Akagera national parks. “I worked here in 1980s when we put up an exhibition of this kind and the visitors were in thousands on a daily basis and this gives us hope that this time around even more people will be coming,” Hinkel said. The exhibition, said Umuliisa, is included in the policy of promoting the National Museums all around the country.“We realised that the general public knows Huye and Rukali (the King’s Palace) as the only national museums,” he said.According to officials at the museum, the reptiles, just like the museum premises, will be accessed at Rwf1,000 for Rwandans and citizens of East African Community and the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries countries. Others will pay Rwf5,000 . The Kandt House was built by Richard Kandt, the first German settler in Kigali.Meanwhile, Umuliisa said the plan is to put in place three botanical gardens, at Kandt House, Presidential Palace museum-Kanombe, and Environmental Museum in Karongi District.The gardens, according to him, will be ready in three years and will be stoked with birds such as crested cranes, and other small animals that will serve mostly pedagogical purposes.