Roofing in Rwanda

Rwanda is a small, densely populated country of steep hills in the African Great Lakes region. For centuries its houses, from farmers' homes to the royal residence, were round, beehive-shaped dwellings of poles and grass thatch. That tradition was ended deliberately: between late 2009 and 2011 the government's campaign against thatched houses (nyakatsi) replaced the remaining grass roofs with metal sheets. Today Rwanda is unusual in East Africa for the large share of homes roofed with locally made tiles alongside corrugated iron.

Climate and hazards

Altitude gives Rwanda a mild climate, but rainfall is high and falls in two main seasons, often in intense thunderstorms with strong winds. Wind uplift of poorly fixed roof sheets, heavy rain and lightning are the main hazards for roofs, and the government has issued ministerial instructions on construction methods to prevent disasters caused by thunderstorms, rain and windstorms.

Roofing history

The traditional Rwandan house was a round dwelling under a dome or beehive of grass thatch. A prominent example is the royal residence: the King's Palace Museum at Nyanza includes a reconstruction, in traditional materials, of the 19th-century royal palace as a beehive-shaped thatched dwelling, alongside the palace complex built in 1930-1933 on Rukari hill for the monarchy, which was abolished by referendum in 1961. The capital's ordinary huts were built by the same methods as the royal house.

Corrugated iron spread during the colonial and post-independence periods. By the 2000s, the government treated grass thatch as a mark of poverty and a fire and health risk, leading to the Bye Bye Nyakatsi campaign.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Nyakatsi: the grass-thatched house. At the start of the national campaign in December 2009, about 120,000 families still lived in such houses. See Nyakatsi.
• Royal beehive palace: the reconstructed palace at Nyanza is formed of thatched huts with a single beehive-shaped roof.
• Adobe and tile houses: walls of sun-dried adobe block (rukarakara) are widely used, and about a quarter of 2022 census sample records were under locally made tiles.

Roofing today

The public microdata file of the 2022 Population and Housing Census records the main material of the roof for about 1.31 million records. Unweighted shares of records in that file are:

Main roof material	Share of records (unweighted)
Iron sheets	73.6%
Local tiles	26.0%
Industrial tiles	0.2%
Concrete, asbestos, grass and other	under 0.2% combined

These are counts in the sample file, not official weighted estimates of households. They show that grass roofs had practically disappeared by 2022, and that roughly a quarter of records were under locally made tiles.

Codes, standards and regulation

Building design and construction are governed by the Rwanda Building Code (2019 edition), supplemented by a Green Building Minimum Compliance System (2019). Ministerial instructions published through the national Building Permit Management Information System set construction measures against storm, rain and wind damage. The Rwanda Standards Board publishes national standards.

Industry

The census distinguishes locally made tiles from industrial tiles, and local tiles were far more common in the 2022 sample. Regional groups including Safal Group list Rwanda among their operating countries.

Notable roofs

• King's Palace Museum, Nyanza: reconstructed royal beehive thatched palace next to the 1930s royal residence on Rukari hill, administered since 2020 by the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy.

Local roofing terms

• nyakatsi (Kinyarwanda): a grass-thatched house.
• rukarakara (Kinyarwanda): sun-dried adobe block.
• umuganda: community work day, used to build replacement houses during the anti-thatch campaign.

Sources and gaps

Census figures are unweighted record counts from the 2022 public-use sample in the NISR microdata catalogue; an official census table on roofing material are not well documented in published sources. Names and capacities of Rwandan clay-tile and sheet producers are not documented in published sources.