Kandt House Museum

Richard Kandt was a German doctor and explorer who searched for the source of the Nile and became the first colonial resident of Rwanda, and the house built in 1908, a year after he chose the site as the colonial seat, is the oldest surviving building in Kigali; the city grew around it. It was renovated in 2004 as a natural history museum and in December 2017 took Kandt's name, with a new exhibition on Rwanda before and during German rule; it also has sections on Rwandan geology, flora and fauna, a reptile house with snakes and crocodiles in the grounds, and rooms on Kandt himself and the early colonial period.

What you'll find

• The house - Kigali's oldest surviving building, put up in 1908.
• The natural history galleries - geology, flora and fauna of Rwanda.
• The reptile house - snakes and crocodiles kept in the grounds.
• The early Kigali rooms - material on Kandt and the city's beginnings.

When to go

Year round; the museum keeps daily hours. Mornings are quietest. Kigali's rains fall mainly in the afternoons from March to May and October to November.

Things to know

The displays are dated and some sections are thin. The reptile enclosures are small. Photography inside is restricted or charged.

Nearby

Central Kigali surrounds it, and Nyamirambo is southwest.

Key facts