Response to Zamu Isma’s letter

Editor, Allow me to respond to Zamu Isma’s letter that appeared in The New Times of July 23, titled “UK Conservatives doing a great job.”

Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Apartments in Kigali. The New Times / File.

Editor,Allow me to respond to Zamu Isma’s letter that appeared in The New Times of July 23, titled "UK Conservatives doing a great job.”Zamu seems to largely agree with the members of Project Umubano who advised the Government and Kigali city authorities to promote apartments for better land management.Zamu, however, thinks Rwanda needs to embrace what he calls "space-economy housing” rather than apartments per say.As part of the Umubano team, I think it would be useful to explain that our suggestion actually agrees with what you said, and that higher densityand more affordable housing might be better achieved through reducing plot sizes and the introduction of row houses which allow people to live in a more traditional way, rather than the construction of lots of apartments which is costly and would be out of character with much of Kigali and the way people like to live.PhillyUK