Kigali The first businesses were established in Kigali that year by Greek and Indian merchants, with assistance from Baganda and Swahili people. Items traded included cloth and beads. However, commercial activity was limited and there were only around 30 firms in the city by 1914. Kandt also opened government-run schools in Kigali, which began educating Tutsi students. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, during World War I, and were granted sovereignty by a League of Nations mandate in 1919.. In early 1917, Belgium attempted to assert direct rule on the colony, placing King Musinga under arrest and
Kigali being built in the 1920s by the Belgian colonial government as a home for civil servants and Swahili traders. This latter group were mostly members of the Islamic faith, which led to Nyamirambo being known as the "Muslim Quarter". Nyamirambo's Green Mosque ("Masjid al-Fatah") is the oldest mosque in Kigali, dating back to the 1930s. Travel publisher Rough Guides has described Nyamirambo as "Kigali's coolest neighbourhood", citing its multi-cultural status and an active nightlife, which is not found in much of the rest of the city. North of Nyamirambo, and west of the CBD is Nyabugogo. Situated at the lowest