Kagera River and Its Beauty
The Kagera River makes a border area between Rwanda and Tanzania and a fact that it runs northwards between these 2 nations, it crosses a number of Lakes and swamps for about 100 kilometers. These are also surrounded by several low rolling hills that in Tanzania are cultivated though in Rwanda they are found around Akagera National Park. The swamps and Lakes feature expansive papyrus Cyperus papyrus. The Ibanda Arena Game Reserve which covers about 20000 ha, in the extreme north west of Tanzania comprise of an Important Bird Area borders of which stand provisional though nothing is familiar with its bird species.
The Chloropeta gracilirostris exist in papyrus swamps on the River Ruvubu that runs north into Kagera River. Around the 1990s, approximately 50 Balaeniceps rex thrived in the area but only one has been recorded around the Tanzania area of the swamps. Gallinago have also been recorded around the flooded grassland on the north western shore of Lake Rushwa and it is likely that the same habitats in the Important Bird Areas are seasonally important for migrant species. The Laniarius mufumbiri are allover the course of the Kagera River and on the Ruvubu River to the south.
The Kagera River is also known as Akagera and it is the remotest headstream of the River Nile and largest tributary of Lake Victoria which rises in Burundi just close to the northern side of Lake Tanganyika. It is created at the confluence of its 2 headstreams which include Nyawarongo and Ruvubu that in turn are fed by streams rising in the highlands east of Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika between Congo and Rwanda. This river runs for over 400 kilometers north and east and the middle course northward forms a border area between Rwanda and Tanzania, along the east, it makes the border area between Uganda and Tanzania for few kilometers and then passes through Tanzania to enter Lake Victoria 25 miles north of Bukoba.
The Akagera River basin, mountainous and scattered with Lakes and swamps largely located within the Land of a Thousand Hills and comprises of Akagera National Park. Its longest tributary is the Lukarara southern most of Ruvironza. The largest portion of the Kagera river is very challenging for one to navigate through and the only port is Kyaka Tanzania is mainly served by shallow draft cargo steamers.
