FACT-CHECK: David Adjaye has not been commissioned to design Rwandan Cathedral

Claim:

"The architect behind Ghana’s controversial National Cathedral, David Adjaye, has been commissioned by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to design a ‘modern’ cathedral for the Kigali Archdiocese.

"The structure is expected to be built on the 5.5-hectare plot of land that used to house the former Nyarugenge Prison, also known as ‘1930,’ after the year it was built," this is part of a Citi FM publication citing BBN Breaking news website..

The report continues: "The prestigious project aims to create an iconic and modern place of worship that reflects Rwanda’s rich cultural heritage and serves as a symbol of unity and spiritual devotion.

"The announcement was made on Thursday, May 11, during a budget hearing in which the Rwanda Development Board officials presented to the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Trade the institution’s projected spending for the next fiscal year, which begins in July 2023."

What GhanaWeb Fact-Check team found:

Our first stop was to get a local news portal or government site that had reported on the development or even posted about it on social media.

Rwanda's leading pro-government news portal is the New Time Rwanda news portal which had no active webpage with the story except for a broken link. It appears that the story they published had been pulled down.

Second step, we went through the social media handles of the Rwandan Development Board which had nothing related to Kigali Cathedral throughout May 11, the day the said deal was announced during a budget hearing.

Curious so, because the RDB is very active on social media and posts all major updates of its activities in real time. It's website also has no trace of such a development.

Third step: The webiste of Adjaye and Associates will ordinarily post such deals on their news page.

The most recent news on that page dates back to March 21, titled: “Street Plaza by Adjaye Associates with Daniel Boyd,” reference to a project that “”they were working on in Sydney, Australia’s Central Business District.

Fourth step: When you type "Rwanda" into the search engine of the adjaye and associates website, you get one news item popping up.

It relates to the 2015 story by dezeen.com titled: "David Adjaye unveils designs for children's cancer treatment centre in Rwanda"

Its first two paragraphs read: "British architect David Adjaye has revealed plans for a 100-bed paediatric cancer centre in Rwanda, East Africa.

"The architect, who was born in Tanzania, is designing the Gahanga International Children's Cancer Hospital for a four-hectare site in Gahanga, a region to the south of Rwandan capital Kigali."

The project was actually commissioned by an NGO and co-funded by a Rwandan diplomat.

Conclusion:

There is no concrete evidence that Adjaye and Associates have been commissioned to design the Kigali Cathedral.

What we can report is that, there has been plans to build the facility but nothing has so far been mooted about architectural drawings.

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