Through the monthly community service (Umuganda) residents of Ngoma District prepared an expansive chunk of land designated as the new cemetery for Kibungo town. The new location is in Gahima Cell, Kibungo Sector. The community service also attracted Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, the State Minister for Transport and Iphigénie Mukandera, a Member of Parliament. The district councilors confirmed the place after two cemeteries were all used up. Kibungo, Ngoma district’s town, has experienced a rapid population growth from 3,000 a few years ago to more than 30,000 people today, according to the mayor of the district, Aphrodise Nambaje. “Human beings are born, grow up, and then grow old, but eventually comes the time to say goodbye to life, when that happens, there is a way to give them an appropriate burial. So, there should be a good place to lay them to rest,” the mayor said. Karutaneshwa cemetery in Kibungo town was full and the mayor said that it has been ravaged by rain-induced disasters. There was need for a bigger area, said the mayor, and they found the 4 hectares in Gahima, which is owned by the district. The mayor said they will at first use one hectare as a cemetery, which he said will be managed by the private sector. It will have different categories according to the financial capacity of the bereaved family. The master plan for the new cemetery will come into force at the beginning of the next fiscal year (in July) but people will be allowed to use it, pending the enforcement of the plan. “Investors will compete for rights to manage it [the cemetery],” he said. MP Iphigénie Mukandera said the law on cemetery states that deceased people must be laid to rest at a proper place, in a public cemetery, “not at homes.” Mayor Nambaje said the district plans to plant trees in the used up cemeteries not only to preserve them, but also to allow recovery of the land so it will be used for other purposes in the future. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
