Residents of Kwa Dubai, an affordable housing development in Kigali, have expressed concern about the safety of their homes.

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Located in Kinyinya, a suburb of Kigali, the estate’s issues got public attention last month when one of the houses belonging to a resident collapsed.

A video of how the house easily crumbled due to rain went viral on social media, leading to many questions from people.

When The New Times visited the estate, it was clear that the standard of construction by the contractor has issues, making the lives of the residents unsafe.

"We are afraid. These houses are weak. Our fears get even worse when it rains,” a resident who asked for anonymity, told The New Times.

The real estate was constructed as an affordable solution. It attracted many clients who bought houses for around Rwf 25 million.

Currently, the poor shape in which the houses are in is an issue of concern. One of the people that were interviewed by The New Times had two cracks in the wall of her sitting room.

The use of very little amounts of cement and stones are some of the issues that characterised the shoddy construction that the contractor did in this particular estate. Electrical installation is also something that was done in a sloppy manner but the residents acted fast to fix it.

"Our houses were at the risk of burning, so we had to replace the equipment like wires and sockets. One time, a house belonging to a neighbour was about to catch fire. We told her that she had to replace the wires just as we had done,” the source said.

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Besides the electricity problem, the residents have to strengthen the walls of their houses. If you don’t do this, you risk losing your house at some point.

On an unfortunate note, even after making such changes, it does not mean that your house will be up to the standard. One of the ways that are used to strengthen the walls is the replacement of the initial plaster with one that has more cement in it.

"The house can get better, but still we are not sure whether they will be safe,” the source said.

Who is to blame?

The residents do not seem to have plans of engaging the contractor to do anything about the issue.

For instance, the person whose house collapsed (asked for anonymity), told The New Times that they have not considered any action in regards to compensation.

Many residents living in the estate seem to have a mindset that the money they paid for the houses was worth what they got.

"Rwf 25 million is little money for a house. This place is good and close to the city. When we came to buy, the contractor showed us what he had and told us that if we did not like it, we could look for other options,” the anonymous source said.

By the time we reached the estate days after the collapse of the house, the developer of the estate, Jean Nsabimana alias Dubai, had not visited the area.

"He told us via a WhatsApp group, that we did not do a good renovation job. He said some people only repaired one side of the houses and this made them unbalanced and put them at risk of collapsing,” the anonymous source said.

Is it possible to build a house and sell it at Rwf 25m?

Gilbert Nakure, an architect based in Kigali, told The New Times that constructing a house and selling it at Rwf 25 million is practical, but there are some compromises that the contractors should not make uring construction.

He noted that things related to finishing, beautification and size of the house can be altered, for example, a contractor can use cement instead of tiles. But he noted that when it comes to matters related to the strength and structure of the house, contractors should not be tempted to use poor quality materials.