The Rotary Club of Kigali Karisimbi installed Hem Raj Sharma as its new president on July 5, 2026, taking over from outgoing president Samuel Nzeki Munyao after a year of active community service across Kigali’s districts. The handover ceremony, attended by Rotary Assistant District Governor Jwala Vijay Kumar Chaluvadi and club members from across the city, marked the beginning of a new chapter for one of Kigali’s most active civic organisations.

What drew attention beyond the usual installation formalities was Sharma’s opening address, in which he identified guided walking tours through Kigali’s neighbourhoods as a priority activity he wants to build into the club’s calendar for the year ahead.

A President Who Walks the City

Sharma, who has lived and worked in Kigali for several years, described walking tours as one of the most effective ways he has personally seen the city’s communities understood by people arriving from outside Rwanda.

“When I first arrived in Kigali, I knew the city through meetings and vehicles. It was only when I started walking the neighbourhoods that I understood what Rwanda has actually built here,” Sharma told members at the installation. He cited tours through areas like Nyamirambo and Downtown Kigali as experiences that changed how he thought about the city’s transformation and the communities driving it.

Walking Tours as a Rotary Service Activity

Rotary’s global mandate is built around service, community connection, and building bridges between people of different backgrounds. Sharma’s proposal to incorporate walking tours into the Kigali Karisimbi calendar reflects that mandate at the most local level possible.

His plan is to organise quarterly guided walks for club members and their guests through different Kigali neighbourhoods, partnering with Walking Tour Rwanda, which currently operates certified two-hour experiences across five districts including Kimihurura, Remera, and Nyarutarama.

The idea is straightforward: bring together Rotary members from different sectors, international and local, and walk them through a neighbourhood they have probably driven past a hundred times without stopping. The guides do the rest.

Why This Matters Beyond the Club

Rotary Kigali Karisimbi has members drawn from business, diplomacy, healthcare, and education, precisely the professional community that tends to arrive in Kigali with a packed schedule and very little time spent outside of hotel meeting rooms and conference halls.

Sharma’s walking tour initiative, if it takes hold, creates a repeatable model for connecting Kigali’s international professional community with the local neighbourhoods and small business owners who do not typically appear on the conference circuit. Every guided walk that passes a market trader, a tailor, or a milk bar owner creates a referral, a conversation, and sometimes a relationship that outlasts the tour itself.

What Rotary Walking Tours Could Look Like

Under Sharma’s proposal, each quarterly walk would focus on a different neighbourhood, rotating through Walking Tour Rwanda’s five certified routes across the year. Members would be encouraged to bring guests, including visiting Rotarians from other chapters, international partners, and new arrivals to Kigali who have not yet had a chance to experience the city beyond their immediate work environment.

Post-walk gatherings at a local café or community space in the toured neighbourhood would extend the connection beyond the two-hour walk itself, putting Rotary members in rooms run by the local business owners they just walked past.

A Simple Idea with Real Reach

What makes Sharma’s focus on walking tours notable is its simplicity. Rotary clubs typically anchor their service activities in large projects: boreholes, school buildings, health drives. Walking tours ask for none of that capital investment. They ask for two hours, an open mind, and a guide worth listening to.

For anyone inspired by Sharma’s vision to walk Kigali’s neighbourhoods before the next Rotary calendar slot opens up, Walking Tour Rwanda is available to book directly online. Current pricing makes group bookings straightforward. The new Rotary president has already walked the city. The tours are ready for anyone who wants to follow.