RUBAVU - Over 20 Members of Parliament from the lower chamber of deputies, yesterday, participated in the communal work commonly known as  ‘Umuganda’ to help build permanent houses for people still living in grass-thatched houses.

The communal work that is carried out every last Saturday of the month, was carried out in Cyuve Sector in Musanze District in Northern Province and saw the MPs  turn up in large numbers and were led by Deputy Speaker, Denis Polisi.

"We chose this particular sector because it has the highest number of grass-thatched houses in the district and that’s our priority,” said Aime Bosenibamwe, the Governor of the Northern Province.

He revealed that this sector had 173 grass=thatched houses and that the province’s target is to eradicate the houses by the end of March although Cyuve Sector has set its own target of before the end of February.

Yesterday, the MPs in collaboration with the local leadership, police and the army built more than twenty houses for three categories of people.

"There are three categories of people living in grass-thatched houses and these include the first category which constitutes the extremely poor, such as the orphans and the  elderly, and these will have everything done for them,” explained Bosenibamwe.

He added that the second category includes people who are not extremely poor and that these will get only the roofing material while they do the rest by themselves.

The third category constitutes people who can afford an iron sheet house but due to lack of sensitization, still live in grass-thatched houses.

Polisi commended the work done by the legislators in implementing the government programs since this is what they should be doing during this new mandate of the government.

"As parliamentarians during the new mandate of the president and government, we need to come closer to constituents and share ideas with them as we jointly solve problems and develop the country,” he said.

Polisi added that MPs will be carrying out communal work in every district in the country as a way of identifying challenges faced when implementing government programs.

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