I remember telling my friend Gerald with whom I had driven to Rwanda… “If you spot a pothole, I’m giving you Shs 10k”.
I kept reminding him of my offer throughout the entire weekend. But Gerald never got the Shs 10k. Not because I wasn’t serious but rather because there was no pothole to spot.
We had driven more than 100 kms (Katuna to Kigali and within Kigali city) and I swear not a single time did any of the cars in which we moved make a bump as a result of a pothole. Heck, not even due to a hump because I don’t recall seeing a hump.
To anyone living in Uganda, this sounds so farfetched. I wish it was. And there’s a lot more in Rwanda to shock a person used to the chaos that Uganda is.
‘How can a city be so beautiful, clean and orderly?’ is what I pondered on while we drove through Kigali. Myself and three other colleagues had taken a road trip from Kampala to Kigali to attend a mutual friend’s wedding.
The first shocker, even before you leave Ugandan soil are the constant reminders from traders and money changers in Katuna border town to get rid of any plastic bags (kavera) that you may carry in your bags. Polythene bags are taboo in Rwanda. I had none on me. So, I watched giggling as Gerald searched his bags and retrieved about two plastic bags which he eventually disposed of. That something that has been so engrained in your life all the years you’ve lived in Uganda suddenly is criminal, can be boggling.
You begin to question what more change there is to adjust to. I want to imagine it’s almost the same tension someone looking to enter the U.S. through the Mexico border endures.
Besides Gerald, who was in the driver’s seat, struggling to keep right (contrary to Uganda, in Rwanda, cars drive on the right) soon, we were adapting to the new territory. You quickly begin to realize where Rwanda derives its tagline ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’. A hilly terrain is what characterizes the entire countryside. Kigali city too.
While you drive between Katuna and Kigali, there’s another disturbing observation to make. The entire highway (80kms) is lined with street lights. I made a similar observation back in 2015 when I first visited Rwanda. It confused me how from Kigali to the northern town of Musanze, the 94km road had functional street lights all through. I say “disturbing” because Uganda has failed to light up the Entebbe Expressway and the Northern Bypass both of which are much shorter in distance.
The highway wasn’t busy all through. Isolated vehicles, children walking home from school and a couple of small townships along the route.
Thanks to the heads up from a Rwandan customs agent at the border, we were aware of the speed limit – 60kmph – so we kept reminding our tense driver. Violating this speed limit has financial implications (fines), the agent had warned us.
Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter a single traffic police officer along the entire drive to Kigali. So, who enforces the speed limit? The highway is dotted with fancy cameras which monitor all vehicles plying the route and take photos. At any point before you exit the country, you could be issued a fine for the offense you committed.
But it’s until you get to Kigali that the orderliness that everyone who visits the city touts begins to make sense. Every boda boda rider we set eyes on had a helmet on. And so did the passengers.
‘It’s just a coincidence’. Your mind is quick to have you believe. Except it’s not a coincidence. That’s just the way things are done on the other side of the border.
Our first evening in Kigali was quite the kicker. And it had a lot to do with the fact that our host went out of his way to make sure we settled in pretty comfortably. By serving us pork for dinner, he already had me compromised. That alone had me rating my visit with 5 full stars. As if that wasn’t enough to have our taste buds make a joy dance, the menu also had roasted chicken, fries and plantain.
As much as the conversations were hooking, our host wouldn’t let us be. “Guys, please eat,” he would interject from time to time. He had also insisted that rather than wash the meal down with a Fanta Lemon soda, I instead try Mützig, one of the popular beer brands in Rwanda. Ordering three bottles for me. I’m not a big enthusiast of beer, but saying no to such an offer wouldn’t be the best gesture towards someone with such impeccable hospitality. Would it?
Travel is about experiencing things beyond one’s version of normal. Which is why it’s always important to keep an open mind. When you visit the land of housefly eaters, you too must eat house flies. Goes the cardinal rule of traveling.
Over food, we talked about quite a lot – working in Rwanda, marriage, the traditions that make up Rwanda, including the ‘Umuganda’ which so happened to be slated for the next day.
Turns out, in the Rwandan culture, dowry isn’t as discouraging as is the case in some Ugandan cultures. We learnt that a hoe or at most, two cows, is enough to earn a man a girl’s hand in marriage. Wanna guess the reactions this revelation prompted from the three Ugandan men? Their jaws dropped.
“Guys, you’re not eating your food. This is all yours to finish”.
Completely unbothered by the fact that we had a wedding to attend the following day, thus we can’t be depleting our appetite in just one sitting.
The morning of Saturday was quiet and peaceful in a far suburb where we slept. It was a cold morning. It felt like the many mornings I’ve woken up in Kabale, except there was no mist. None of us could dare a cold shower. The plan was to take a walk and go to the nearby shop to buy a toothbrush as I had noticed I hadn’t carried mine.
“The shops are closed until midday. Only then can you go”, a staffer at the guest house told me. “Everyone is participating in Umuganda.”
All Rwandans aged 18 to 65 are mandated by law to participate in Umuganda (communal work). Every last Saturday of the month, all shops must close and all traffic is stopped for three hours in the morning in order for Rwandans to clean up communities in which they live. Failure to participate attracts a fine.
The results of deliberate initiatives such as Umuganda begin to make sense when you drive around Kigali city during daylight, which we did that morning. Kigali is beautiful and the aspects that compound this are unmissable. Dirt-free paved roads, well-made pavements, disciplined motorists, well-manicured green grass, beautiful palm trees that line the streets.
It is these sights that I made the most of on my 13-minute moto taxi ride Sunday morning from Remera to CAVICO crafts market in Kiyovu, to buy some souvenirs.
Language barrier had initially almost rendered this jaunt futile. [A tiny minority can speak English in Rwanda as the majority use Kinyarwanda]. I had randomly Googled crafts shops and landed on CAVICO and the only option was to gamble and follow Google Maps. Unfortunately, the first three or so motorcyclists I attempted asking (in my terrible Kinyarwanda and English) seemed to have no clue where this place was situated.
But I had no plans of giving up. So, I finally approached one who was open-minded. He zoomed into the map and said we would locate the place. Seeing I was not understanding what the fare would be, he brought out his phone and wrote the figure on his calculator. To which I agreed and off we went.
You could drive within the Kigali Central Business District for a full week without feeling the need to wash your car. There’s simply no need because in order to wash a car, it has to be dirty. And cars don’t get dirty in a city rated the cleanest in Africa.
You can’t help but notice multinational brands like KFC, MTN, I&M Bank, Marriot, Four Points by Sheraton, Radisson Blu and Serena Hotel which in a way herald both the potential and future of Rwanda’s economy. We also drove past the Kigali Convention Centre, arguably Kigali’s most prominent landmark. The dome-shaped structure which is illuminated with different colors at night has come to be the premium events venue.
I recall Gerald commenting “This (Rwanda) is what should be the Pearl of Africa”. I could understand where the sentiment was coming from. Among our many Ugandan opinions we spewed during our visit was the fact that a political will (back home) is needed if we are to solve the stagnancy that we find ourselves.
One of us also hinted on the importance of a Head of State taking personal interest in something. President Kagame has a strong passion for sport. He is an ardent fan of Arsenal. Which perhaps explains why ‘Visit Rwanda’ ended up as a sleeve sponsor for Arsenal FC. The same could explain why Rwanda is heavily investing in sports tourism including upgrading the national football stadium to a world-class facility.
What is the one thing that Uganda’s President has personal interest in? I would be a liar if I told you anything crossed our minds. “Security” one of us commented. What followed was a debate on whether security alone is enough to quickly leap a country into its next phase of economic development.
In Remera where we stayed Saturday night, you see a city warming up to the outside world. In a distance, you can see the Kigali International Airport in Kanombe. [In Bugesera, 40kms outside Kigali, a new $2bn airport is under construction]. And in the opposite direction, the towering structures of the Amahoro Stadium which is undergoing an upgrade, are visible.
Next to the stadium is BK Arena, the fancy 10,000-seater multi-purpose indoor arena built in 2019 which hosted the first-ever Basketball Africa League 2021, the 2021 African Nations Volleyball Championships, and more recently, the FIFA Congress.
The wedding. Of course, I have to talk about the wedding. Our Saturday morning drive around the city had wound up at the EAR Remera Anglican Church where our high school contemporary, Samuel, would exchange wedding vows with his now wife, Daphine.
It was a pleasant ceremony. It always is adorable witnessing a couple embark on this journey. What was perhaps odd was – two couples were wedded off simultaneously during the same church service. Being one who holds that young couples should not be wasteful when it comes to planning weddings, I found this model rather cost effective.
Eventful. That’s what the reception was like. It was full of color, warm décor. Watching a performance of the ‘intore’ traditional dance was a window into the Rwandan culture. There’s something enchanting about the sight of stunning women gracefully moving with uniform choreography. We were at the Green Jade Garden in Rebero.
Today, Rebero, another Kigali fringe, is a collection of palatial residences and a few hangouts for the affluent.
But this was not always the case. Rebero holds great significance in the story of Rwanda’s political evolution.
“During the armed struggle that brought President Paul Kagame to power after the 1994 genocide, the top of Rebero hill was a strategic base that (then President) Juvenal Habyarimana’s forces used to launch artillery attacks on areas that Kagame’s RPF occupied,” a Rwandan national with whom we drove from church, told us.
Parties get warmer and engaging when there are so many familiar faces. Sam’s wedding was one such event. Catching up with lost friends, and making new acquaintances.
What wasn’t so different from the Ugandan ways were the lengthy speeches from family and friends. Food tasted way different. The g-nut paste, the gravy and the chapati teased my taste buds oddly. But what’s travel if experiences are not new? Being that the wedding coincided with my birthday, I savored as much cake as I could. It was dry. Exactly how I prefer it.
Later that night, we were in a hotel basement somewhere in Gisementi grooving the night away. We had been invited to the afterparty. A couple of Amstel beers and bits of Chameleone, Goodlyfe and Bobi Wine tracks in the mix later, it was time for ‘the Ugandan delegation’ to retire.
“What do you mean roads are mopped?”. I asked while we drove through Kigali on our last day in the city.
“Yeah, they are cleaned. I don’t mean sweeping. There are water trucks that clean roads regularly”. Someone explained.
Too many things distinguish Rwanda from the country I call home. And the contrast is hard to avoid. For example, it is very easy to notice that (paved) roads in Rwanda look a lot cleaner compared to the Ugandan side. Someone told us the paved roads are mopped.
I don’t know if there’s one thing that explains the beauty and order that characterize Kigali. I think it’s a combination of factors – functioning laws, proactive enforcement of same laws, investment in technology and city cleaning, a ban on plastic bags and a culture like umuganda.
No sooner had we crossed to the other side of the border (into Uganda) than Uganda initiated us into the Ugandan mess. We weren’t even in the country yet. In the process of clearing, two officers (Ministry of Health and UPDF) wanted bribes before they could do their job. A sad reminder that we were back home.
Did I mention that Ugandan Shillings 10,000 is equivalent to Rwanda Francs 3,000? It’s another painful part of the whole experience.
