Affects of City of Kigali expansion on the livelihood of the surrounding communities: case of Rwamagana District (2009-2019)

Abstract

This study endeavored to examine the effects of expansion of City of Kigali on the shelter security of people in rural areas of Rwamagana District. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to assess the extent to which the proliferation of infrastructure in City of Kigali affects the availability of land in Rwamagana district; to examine how the increase of business activities in Kigali City impact on the cost of housing in Rwamagana and to evaluate the effects of settlement according to the master plan of City of Kigali on the quality of housing in Rwamagana district. A case study research design has been used and the purposive sampling technique was employed to select 70 respondents from four sectors of Rwamagana which are adjacent to City of Kigali. This sample comprised 50 people representing the local residents affected by the movement, 16 who went to live there migrating from other places and 4 Executive Secretary of sectors officers who were taken as key informants. The study used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the quantitative approach, questionnaires were used to collect information from respondents and for a qualitative one, a semi-structure interview guide to collect information from key informants. The data collection instruments were also administered to a pilot group of people to ensure their reliability. Collected data were arranged and analyzed using SPSS and tables have been used to summarize the findings. The findings of the study were that the City of Kigali is undergoing a high and quick growth which expands it towards its surrounding rural areas. Rwamagana District is one of the districts which have rural areas that are affected by this expansion. There are both positive and negative effects. Positive effects include the improvement of some infrastructures like roads, schools and health centers. There are also some local residents who use well the money got from selling their lands to migrants and improved the standards of living. On the other hand, it was found that there are more negative effects which include the increase of price of housing, decrease of land for agriculture, conflict among families after selling the lands, overcrowding of some infrastructure like schools and roads as well as people are in poor quality of houses and other shelter-less because of selling and misusing money.