The Poop On How Rwanda Turned Prison Feces Into Energy

RWAMAGANA — They’re sitting on the floor in close ranks, facing the door. There’s about a hundred of them. In their orange uniforms, most of them barefooted, the convicts are waiting under a scorching sun, waiting to be counted and re-counted before entering Rwamagana's penitentiary, the biggest prison in Rwanda.

Among the 8,597 prisoners crammed inside its high walls, more than half are still being imprisoned for crimes they committed during the genocide that killed more than 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, between April and July 1994. During the commemorations that will officially end on July 4 but also on billboards and on television, the word kwibua, or "remember," is everywhere.

As soon as it emerged from its genocidal hell, Rwanda had to manage an unprecedented influx of prisoners. Between 2001 and 2012, the 12,100 gacaca — popular jurisdictions inspired by ancient assemblies where wise men of the village would solve disputes — judged more than two million people. According to government figures, 65% of them were sentenced to prison or community service.

Although several penitentiaries were expanded or renovated, all rapidly reached their limit. “The smell of feces was unbearable inside the walls, and even around the prison,” recalls Vincent, a convict in his sixties. "There have been more than 12,000 of us here. Since the septic tanks were often full, we would suffocate. Visitors used to come with a mask."

Photo: Rwamagana Prison

In the late 1990s, the Rwandan government launched a significant investment plan in renewable energies, including biogas (producing gases from the...