Flag of Rwanda
A sky-blue upper half over a yellow and a green stripe, with a golden sun on the right of the blue. The Kigali newspaper The New Times and the Larousse encyclopedia explain the blue as happiness and peace, the yellow as economic development, the green as the hope of prosperity and the sun as enlightenment.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Article 9 of the constitution of 2003, as revised in 2015, names the national symbols and describes the flag from the bottom up: a green stripe, then a yellow stripe, together covering half the flag; the upper half is blue and bears on its right-hand side the sun with its rays in golden yellow, the sun separated from its rays by a blue ring. Details are left to specific laws, chiefly Law No. 34/2008 of 8 August 2008 on the flag, amended in 2013 and 2018. The New Times says the flag was designed by Alphonse Kirimobenecyo, a Rwandan artist and engineer, and launched on 31 December 2001, with a 24-pointed sun; Larousse gives 2002 as the year of adoption.
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What the flag law says
The New Times summarised the flag law in 2018. The flag is government property, but Rwandans, foreigners, non-government organisations, companies and cooperatives have the right to own it in line with the law. It may be raised at administration buildings and at other places for official events, and it is lowered when it is torn, dirty, worn out or faded, or when the ceremony it was used for ends. Law No. 42/2018 sets punishments for despising, removing, destroying, stealing or violating the flag, with at least one month in prison and a fine of at least RWF 500,000.
Telling it from Gabon’s flag
Gabon’s flag has the same three colours, in three equal horizontal stripes of green, yellow and blue, and nothing on it. Rwanda’s blue takes the whole upper half and carries the sun.
Read next
- Next in African flagsFlag of the SeychellesSeychelles’s flag is five bands, blue, yellow, red, white and green, fanning out from the bottom corner by the pole. Its designer, Philip Uzice, told the Seychelles Nation that blue stands for the sky and the sea, yellow for the sun giving light and life, red for progress, white for peace and harmony and green for the land and natural environment.
- The same shape in Asian flagsFlag of IndiaThree equal bands of saffron, white and green, with a navy blue wheel of 24 spokes, the Ashoka Chakra, in the centre. The Flag Code of India quotes Dr S. Radhakrishnan’s explanation to the Constituent Assembly in 1947: saffron for renunciation, white for light and the path of truth, green for the relation to the soil, and the wheel for the law of dharma and for motion.
More african flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles, lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Rwanda 2003 (rev. 2015) Constitution, Constitution of Rwanda of 2003 (rev. 2015), Article 9 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 9
- Rwanda’s National symbols, The New Times, 28 January 2011, Times Reporter, The New Times (Kigali), The National Flag
- Relating to use of the National Flag, The New Times, 27 November 2018, by Elizabeth Buhungiro, The New Times (Kigali), Article text
- Drapeau du Rwanda (Larousse), Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne, image entry with caption, Larousse, Caption
- Gabon 1991 (rev. 2011) Constitution, Constitution of Gabon of 1991 (rev. 2011), Article 2 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 2
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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