If all goes according to plan, a patch of land that once held Kigali’s maximum security prison will be transformed into the biggest cathedral in Rwanda as part of a drive by the municipal authorities to improve infrastructure in the city.
The proposed Catholic Cathedral will be located in Muhima, a suburb of Kigali city, an official source revealed on Monday.
The last batch of inmates from the old detention facility which was commonly known as ‘1930’ were relocated from the historical prison in July 2018 to another site located a few kilometres from the city centre.
According to Fred Mugisha of the Kigali Urban Planning and Construction One Stop Centre, to start with there is already a proposal to turn the land over to the Catholic Church which has showed an interest in developing a state-of-the-art cathedral on the site.
Municipality authorities in Kigali emphasize that by the end of February, the concept will be complete indicating the features, capacity and other aesthetic aspects of the proposed edifice while construction works are expected to be complete by the end of 2021.
The former Kigali Central Prison is described to be among the first modern facilities by Belgians in Kigali.
According to the Kigali City master plan, four premises including Sainte Famille Catholic Church, Matheus Commercial Centre, and former Nyarugenge Prison have been gazetted as heritage sites.
CU/as/APA