Weekly note
Kigali: the sun is setting over a city with tall buildings

Kigali in December

okbusy · worth considering

The year in Kigali

Tap a month for its page

  1. Kigali in January: good
  2. Kigali in February: sweet spot
  3. Kigali in March: good
  4. Kigali in April: ok
  5. Kigali in May: good
  6. Kigali in June: sweet spot
  7. Kigali in July: good
  8. Kigali in August: good
  9. Kigali in September: sweet spot
  10. Kigali in October: good
  11. Kigali in November: ok
  12. Kigali in December: ok
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
December at Kigali is 26°C by day and 15°C at night, with 12 rainy days and about 11 hours of sun a day. Holidays: GB: Christmas Day; GB: New Year's Day; RW: Christmas Day.

The numbers

Daily high26°C
Nightly low15°C
Feels like, afternoon28°C
Rainy days, 1 mm or more12 · 102 mm
Humidity77%
Sunshine10.5 h/day
Daylight12.2 h/day
Crowds63 / 100, higher is quieter

Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.

Weather read at the centre, 6 km from the city centre: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

How busy it gets

December: about usual. About as busy all year round.

Public holidays in December

Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.

Kigali in pictures

What to pack

  • Rain gear you will actually use: about 12 rainy days and 102 mm.
  • Sun protection: about 11 hours of sunshine a day.
  • Humidity averages 77%; breathable fabrics dry faster.

Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.

Before you go

Cost of livingvery cheap — prices run about 27% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
CurrencyRwandan franc
LanguagesKinyarwanda, English, French, Swahili
PlugsType C and E and G, 230 V
DrivingOn the right
Calling code+250
Travel advice avoid all but essential travel to parts — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-09-04
HealthUK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-10. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

On arrival in Kigali: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.

December elsewhere

In December from

The other months at Kigali

← November · All twelve months at Kigali · January →

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