Kwita Izina Gorilla Naming Ceremony

The tenth edition of Kwita Izina, Rwanda’s annual gorilla naming and conservation festival, will this year take place on Tuesday 01st of July after some scheduling adjustments announced by the Rwanda Development Board’s Tourism and Conservation Department.

Starting the week long festivities, which once again will cover the entire country, will be the launch of a Gorilla Conservation and Community exhibition in Kinigi on Monday the 23rd of June while from the 25th to the 29th a familiarization trip across all the provinces will acquaint invited guests and media participants with the range of tourism attractions beyond gorilla tracking.

Among the visits will be the official launch of Basumba Primary School funded by RDB through the Tourism Revenue Sharing Scheme which has over the years provided millions of Rwanda Francs for community benefits like schools, health centres, the provision of clean water and the construction of roads and other infrastructure.

On Saturday 28th of June can visitors experience first hand the Rwandan community self help model of Umuganda, where the entire nation, apart from those on duty work, comes together to improve their immediate neighbourhoods, clean trenches, slash grass, beautify recreational parks and engage in other community projects through volunteered hands on work.

On the afternoon of the same day will RDB launch a tourism exhibition and B2B meetings as visitors from the entire Eastern African region are expected to assemble in Kigali in support of the festival, which is now one of several the tourist boards of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya organize and are pledged to support.

For the full schedule and more information about the festival click here.