Kibuye, renamed Karongi in the 2006 administrative reorganisation, is the most peaceful corner of Lake Kivu: a town scattered over green peninsulas and hills that look out over a vast blue lake dotted with islands. There are no skyscrapers or traffic here; instead there are eucalyptus trees, banana plants, fishermen singing at dawn and the silence of one of Africa's largest bodies of fresh water.
Its big draw is Lake Kivu itself, one of the few lakes in the world with no crocodiles or hippos, so you can swim, kayak and go out on the water safely. Kibuye is the starting point for boat trips to the famous Napoleon Island, named after its hat-like shape and home to a large colony of fruit bats, and to Amahoro Island, as well as scenic sections of the Congo Nile Trail that follow the shoreline.
This guide takes a practical look at Kibuye: what to see and do on the lake and its islands, how to organise boat and kayak trips, where to stay with a view of the water and how to combine the town with the rest of western Rwanda. It also keeps the memory of 1994 alive: the memorial at Kibuye church remembers one of the largest massacres of the genocide, and it is visited with the same respect the rest of the country gives to that history.
Kibuye grew as a small colonial administrative centre on the shores of Lake Kivu, in a land of herders and farmers organised for centuries under the Kingdom of Rwanda. During the 1994 genocide the area saw one of the highest concentrations of victims: thousands of Tutsis who had sought refuge in the Catholic church and in Gatwaro stadium were killed there, and today a sober memorial remembers the dead. Renamed Karongi in 2006, the town reinvented itself as a destination for rest and nature on Lake Kivu.
Read the full history ↓The great freshwater lake on the border with Congo: beaches and sunsets, a volcanic geological past and a huge store of methane beneath its waters.
Read the history of The west and Lake Kivu →A local guide tells you in half an hour what no sign at the site will ever explain. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have 7 activities in Kigali. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Have a look below: tap any of them to see them all.
They depart from Kigali, 80 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before the town of Kibuye existed, the eastern shore of Lake Kivu was already home to farming and herding communities that belonged to the Kingdom of Rwanda, one of the oldest and most organised states in the African Great Lakes region. From at least the 15th century, a centralised monarchy under the 'mwami' (king) ruled a society of terraced hills, long-horned cattle and a remarkably rich oral culture. The lake region, at the western edge of the kingdom, was a frontier of forests, volcanoes and deep waters.
Lake Kivu is one of the great lakes of the Rift Valley, formed by the tectonic and volcanic activity that split eastern Africa apart. Unlike other African lakes, it has no crocodiles or hippos, partly because of its altitude (around 1,460 metres) and partly because of the unusual conditions of its waters, which hold methane and carbon dioxide dissolved in their depths. Its dozens of volcanic islands and peninsulas make up one of the most beautiful landscapes in Rwanda.
For the communities along the shore, the lake has always been a source of fish, a route for getting around and an everyday horizon. Traditional fishing from three canoes lashed together with bamboo, still practised at dawn, has its roots in that long history of living alongside the water.
In the late 19th century, Rwanda fell under the sway of the German Empire, which made it part of German East Africa with hardly any physical presence on the ground, ruling through the existing monarchy. After Germany's defeat in the First World War, the League of Nations handed Ruanda-Urundi to Belgium as a mandate territory, and it later became a UN trust territory under Belgian administration.
Under Belgian rule, the shore of Lake Kivu gradually gained Catholic missions, administrative posts and small trading centres. Kibuye grew up as one of these places: a modest centre of colonial administration and of the Church, with its Catholic church above the lake, mission schools and a handful of official buildings. The beauty of the lakeside setting and its mild climate slowly turned it into a peaceful spot, far from the country's main routes.
Through censuses and ethnic identity cards, the Belgian administration also deepened the divisions between Hutus and Tutsis, categories that colonial rule hardened and politicised. That poisonous legacy would weigh tragically on the region and on all of Rwanda in the decades that followed.
Kibuye is among the most painful names of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Kibuye prefecture had one of the highest proportions of Tutsi in the country, and it saw some of the largest and most systematic killings of those hundred days. When the genocide began on 6 and 7 April, thousands of people sought refuge in places they believed were safe: Kibuye's Catholic church, Gatwaro stadium and the Home Saint-Jean church.
Instead of protection, these places became traps. On 17 and 18 April 1994, Interahamwe militiamen, gendarmes and armed civilians attacked the crowds gathered in the church and the stadium with firearms, grenades and machetes, killing tens of thousands of people in just a few days. Almost the entire Tutsi population of the area was wiped out. It was one of the largest concentrations of victims of the genocide in a single place.
These events gave rise to some of the first trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which tried local figures responsible for the Kibuye massacre. Today a sober memorial at Home Saint-Jean honours the victims, and since 2023 several Rwandan genocide memorials have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List, bearing witness so that such horror is never repeated.
After the genocide, Rwanda began an extraordinary process of reconstruction, community justice (the 'gacaca' courts) and reconciliation that turned it into one of the most stable and safest countries in Africa. In 2006, a major administrative reform reorganised the territory into provinces and districts, and the town of Kibuye became part of Karongi District, in the Western Province. That is why today it goes by either name, Kibuye or Karongi.
With peace and better roads, the central shore of Lake Kivu reinvented itself as a place to unwind. Lodges and hotels with lake views were built, boat trips to the islands, kayaking and hiking took off, and the local stretch of the Congo Nile Trail began drawing slow-adventure travellers. Small-scale fishing is still part of the landscape and the local economy.
Today Karongi is one of the favourite stops on a Rwanda itinerary: a place to slow down between gorilla trekking in the north and Nyungwe forest in the south. Its calm holds both the memory of a terrible past and the energy of a country that chose to look ahead without forgetting.
