humanised cities

What Makes Rwanda Africa’s Most Inspiring Success Story

I’m curious, where do you get your news from? apart from memes and twitter. I did a poll on my Instagram account but I’d love to hear from you. As for me, I prefer not watching Tv news, especially during these pandemic times, coz of the negative anxiety that’s comes with it. I think watching the news makes me worry about things that are beyond my control.

Not that I don’t care about what’s going on, but the news makes me look at the world within the mindset that created the problems. someone might say, why don’t you just have a mindset shift or watch the news with an open mind but different people have different ways of protecting their mental health.

That has been my biggest hack to stay sane during this time. I avoid the news to keep my head around the things I care about, so I prefer customizing my google to bring me news on topics I care about or just randomly checking my socials especially my twitter account to keep myself on the know.

Speaking of twitter, Today’s post is a series of urban tweets I came across, that might interest you, and simply admiring Rwanda as a country. Y’all have heard how the country is termed as beautiful and of the most inspiring success story in Africa. I know that title’s huge, but the country has really done a good job of bouncing back from the tragic 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In this post, we will highlight and discuss several things that make the country unique and beautiful. I too, wish was writing about my country. But there’s a lot of lessons we can learn from them. More so what we can achieve with good leadership and discipline from its citizens.

Rwanda is one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see. We can say this country is generally blessed just like many of the countries in Africa. Although the country is landlocked, it’s geography is beautiful, filled with mountains, savannah, lakes (Lake Kivu), and hills hence its nickname:” The land of a thousand hills”

The city has Instagram-worthy view, so there’s plenty of viewpoints. Environment and animal conservation are a major priority in the country. The country has a diverse ecosystem and Its government is committed to ensuring that, the local environment is preserved. Since they have worked tirelessly to protect the mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountain range and the environment generally. In 2008, Rwanda banned the use of plastic bags in efforts to go green.

Kigali’s growing business district simply explains the country’s growth stories. This is coz of the successful government policies that have enabled the country to experience a fast transforming economy. Although a percentage of its citizens live below the poverty line, The Rwandan president has noted his ambition to make the country the ‘Singapore of Africa’. In spite of being the smallest country in East Africa, it is listed among the safest country in the world, ahead of countries like New Zealand. This has made tourism to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. Interesting places to visit are the Volcanoes National Park and the Kigali Genocide Memorial. This tweet will explain the kind of leadership this country has.

Simple policies like having a clean-up session that every able-bodied person age ranges from 18 to 65 participates have made them be ranked as the cleanest country in Africa. The clean-up session is called Umuganda meaning: coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome. Some will argue that it’s because of how dense its population is, but it takes a lot to achieve that, from its leadership to the discipline of its citizen. If you’ve seen the recent story: Lessons from Rwanda that Jeff Koinage (Kenyan news anchor) did that was aired on Citizen tv then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The streets are so clean!

The city is an example of a human city since its beautiful, functional, and able to accommodate its citizen population. It is at the forefront of urbanism and sustainable transport, it’s quite easy to get around the city because of the safe motorbike taxis. Beautified streets and quality footpaths of the city center and people can walk safely at night. Kigali Convention Centre being one of the most iconic places in the city

67 Percent of the parliament’s positions are occupied by women. This is a wow factor since women around the world are going against the traditional gender roles to take positions of power, which is happening at a higher rate than normal in Rwanda.

Rwanda is definitely a must visit place. You can add other fun facts about Rwanda that you know off and it’s fascinating. I came across this other tweet but that’s a topic for another day.


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We need to Humanise Cities.

My introductions have always started with life insights or me recommending a nice book or a Tv show, (I assume you’ve noticed that by now), but today’s different. I remember commenting somewhere that I didn’t want this to be a rant blog, but our city’s situation is wanting!

I’m writing this with lots of emotions coz of the heartbreaking accident of a cyclist that happened on Thika Road, Nairobi. (may his soul rest in peace) I was so touched by the numbers that came out on the cyclist lives matter protest that happened on Saturday. That clearly showed how unsafe our roads are for the non-motorists in the Nairobi


I often imagine cycling (as an alternative to beat the traffic) but only the thought of it, is scary, from my safety, the routes to take, and where to park my bicycle. The city itself is discouraging the few that are reasonable enough to take responsibility on their own hands to reduce air pollution and at least decongest the city. I agree we all are responsible for how our cities turn out to be. But how can we even afford to take responsibility if the city itself isn’t built for us? Today’s post is a call for creating more human spaces in cities and towns.

Being a non-motorist in Kenya is clearly a death sentence. That’s the main reason why the majority of the population insists on driving themselves around the city. This continues to increase the number of cars on roads thus congestion and air pollution.

A program was recently done by Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) which involved the conversion of spaces into pedestrian walkways and cycling lanes, to make it easy for residents to walk and cycle from home to work in the CBD. Instead, motorists are already parking along the walkways, inconveniencing pedestrians as well as cyclists. This article highlights the shocking numbers of pedestrians and cyclists that die in road accidents in Kenya.https://insuranceguru.co.ke/road-accidents-in-kenya/

The term humanising the city means humans become the dominant priority in the organisation of the cities’ spaces. (cities serving the people who live in them). This is important since the citizens are the city, if the citizens are not feeling comfortable then, the city certainly is not human-centered. There needs to be a shift in the way cities are developed, cities should be developed with the intent to create better places for humans to inhabit. Urban designers and planners should consider the following strategies to Humanise space in cities and towns;-

  • Have visions and goals towards human-centered cities.
  • Have approaches that recognize problems that city dwellers face yet it also providers economic incentives.
  • Have engagement platforms to get to know what the citizens want.

Human-centered design will have a huge impact on the sense and vibrancy of the city, its advantages include:

  • Create a better place for humans to live.
  • Will make cities and human settlements more inclusive, resilient, safer, and more sustainable.
  • It will empower citizens to make more informed decisions.
  • Attracts density of people to use the NMT.
We hope this gets to work really soon.

We’d love to see less car-centric streets and more pedestrians oriented.

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