Kigali number of rainy days experienced during a year, but has also caused an increase in frequency of torrential rains. Strategic Foresight also characterise Rwanda as a fast warming country, with an increase in average temperature of between 0.7 °C to 0.9 °C over fifty years. As of the 2012 Rwandan census, the population of Kigali was 1,132,686, with an urban population of 859,332. At the time of independence in 1962, Kigali had a population of 6,000, consisting primarily of those associated with the Belgian colonial residency. The population grew considerably after it was named as the independent nation's capital, although
Kigali new independent nation, but Kigali was chosen because of its more central location. The city grew slowly during the following decades, but retained a small-town feel, with just 25,000 people and five paved roads by the early 1970s. On 6 July 1973 there was a bloodless military coup, in which minister of defence Juvénal Habyarimana overthrew ruling president Gregoire Kayibanda. Businesses closed for a few days, and troops patrolled across the city, but life had returned to normal and the army had left the streets by 11 July. In April 1994 President Habyarimana was assassinated, when his plane was shot