GASABO - Hundreds of families in Kimicanga and Kacyiru in Gasabo District, Kigali City are set to be expropriated to give way to the implementation of the City Master Plan.
Willy Ndizeye, the Mayor of Gasabo told The New Times that valuation of property in Kacyiru is complete "and we are about to start the compensation process.”

Ndizeye explained that the Kacyiru land, which is located behind the Ministry of Education, at a neighbourhood known as Kabagari, would accommodate the embassies of Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Close to 50 families in Kacyiru are will be affected.

"Property valuers are currently evaluating property in Kimicanga. The exercise has just begun and we will know the cost of the expropriation (in Kimicanga) when the exercise is complete,” Ndizeye said.

"The remuneration of the affected families will be carried out very soon,” he noted, adding that the funds would be provided by the Ministry of Finance through the Infrastructure ministry.

Ndizeye explained that the district has about 22 settlement sites to relocate those to be affected by the expropriation exercise.

"We prepared these sites to facilitate them,” he explained.

Kimicanga, according to the master plan, is meant to accommodate both commercial and residential complexes.

The move comes over a year after the expropriation exercise was halted in the city.

In June last year, Kigali City authorities announced that it had suspended the expropriation exercise after it emerged that over 1,000 hectares of land acquired by various developers since 2008, was yet to be utilised.

Normally, anyone who acquires land in the city has up to three years to develop it, failure to which may lead to forfeiture.

By February this year, close to 400 hectares of land acquired was yet to be developed, with over 260 hectares owned by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), formerly the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR).

Other developers with undeveloped land are Real Contractors and Rwanda Development Bank (BRD).

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