| Cynthia Munwangari | |
| Birth Date: | 8 September 1990 |
| Birth Place: | Bujumbura, Burundi |
| Years Active: | 2010 — present |
| Known For: | Fashion |
| Director & Founder Bujumbura Fashion Week | |
Cynthia Munwangari is a Burundian fashion designer, fashionista and businesswoman. She is the founder and current director of "Bujumbura Fashion Week", held annually in Bujumbura (the country's largest city).[1]
She was born on 8 September 1990, in Bujumbura, the largest city and then-capital of Burundi. Her father is a Burundi citizen and her mother traces her ancestry to Rwanda.[1] She is the third-born and has two brothers and one sister. She received all her education in Burundi.[1]
Munwangari is the founder-owner of the "Cy’Mun Collection" clothing label. She is also a fashion model for her label.[1] In July 2014, Cynthia Munwangari, at the age of 23 years organised the first Bujumbura Fashion Week, attended by 24 African designers, from 14 countries. The four-hour fashion parade included forty models and was attended by Pierre Nkurunziza, the president of Burundi.[2]
On the evening of Saturday 12 November 2016, one Kenneth Watmond Akena, employed as a community development officer in Aruu North County, Pader District, in Northern Uganda, while driving an automobile, collided with another vehicle in which Cynthia Munwangari was a passenger. The driver of the other vehicle was one Mathew Kanyamunyu, a Ugandan businessman and the boyfriend of Munwangari. The incident occurred in the Lugogo neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city.[3]
Later that evening Kanyamunyu and Munnwangari showed up at Norvik Hospital in the central business district of the city with Akena, who was bleeding from gunshot wounds to the abdomen.[3] The Ugandan authorities were not satisfied with the explanations given by the couple regarding how Akena sustained his injuries, so they detained both. When Akena died the next day; both were charged with his murder.[4] [5]
In March 2017 Cynthia Munwangari and a brother of her boyfriend were granted bail but the boyfriend remained behind bars.[6] As of August 2017, the trial continues, with Cynthia Munwangari out on bail and her boyfriend Matthew Kayamunyu incarcerated.[7]