KCC’s struggles with structural transformations

Last year, Kigali City Council [KCC] displayed the City’s Conceptual Master Plan. This was followed by the first expropriation exercise that left many with complaints of unfair valuation. As the flame of complaints intensified it caught the attention of the Human Rights Commission and Land Commission. In a meeting last year by both commissions to quell the complaints demanded that the expropriation process be carried out according to the law. Several meetings were convened by Origène Rutayisire, the Mayor of Nyarugenge at the district hall to listen to the grievances raised by the expropriation process. Many presented their grievances after which the Mayor visited the affected areas and talked to the area leaders about the numerous complaints. In another meeting with the residents, he ordered the valuation officers to repeat the valuation process which he said had many loopholes and had sparked outbursts. A year after the first phase of the valuation process, the noise seems to have subsided. Some of those who were displaced through the expropriation process have resettled. But some like Vilijinia Mukanyonga, 67, still silently hold grudges against the outcome of the expropriation exercise. Mukanyonga, is among those that were pushed out of Kiyovu a year ago. But she is still unsettled about the valuation process and still maintains that she was ‘cheated.’ “They undervalued my house. It was not worth the money that they gave to me. They gave me only Rwf1m. I deserved Rwf2m,” she says. After the valuation process Mukanyonga says that sheunhappily accepted the Frw1million because, “she had no choice.” After she was paid off, she bought a plot of land in the hills of Gatsata in Nyabugogo. Mukanyonga says that when she purchased the plot of land, it was the rehabilitation that took most of the money she had been given. “If they had given me money equivalent to my property [In kiyovu], I would have bought a better place,” she says. Mukanyonga says her life has drastically changed to struggling for a day’s meal as she holds feelings of nostalgia for the life she led in Kiyovu. “In Kiyovu I did business- used to sell vegetables and foodstuffs and I survived comfortably. Now I don’t farm, don’t do business. I don’t do business because I don’t have money.” She has since resigned to a life of solitude with her health deteriorating due to the poor living conditions. Bruno Rangira the spokesperson of Kigali City Council [KCC] said that before commencing with the resettlement procedures, they were sensitised on the law and their rights. “The law states that you have to inform the public and they have to understand the process. We did it starting from 2006. And then we started the evaluation. After the evaluation we presented to the population what we had showed to the population. And the law stipulates that if they disagree there is a counter evaluation by the land commission,” explains Rangira. Mukanyonga states that she never reported her grievance because despite the stipulated law she didn’t expect proper redress for her problem. Rangira says that in 2006, before the expropriation process KCC took on a construction project of low cost houses in Batsinda in Gasabo district for the resettlement of those that would be displaced. And he says they are doing it in phases. “In the first phase we built 250 and in the second we are going to build 750 low cost houses.” He said that though the houses are worth Rwf2m, Mukanyonga would have made a down payment. “We [KCC] would have helped her get a loan and also started income generating activities like basket weaving, brick making for the youth and a lot of other activities. It is very surprising that she didn’t join this [low income housing project] and it was actually tailored to help such people.” Talking to other Gatsata occupants they express anger on being told to seek for permission to renovate their houses when affected by runoff. A visibly furious Dusabimana who sells merchandise in the open says, “When our houses fall, we can’t rebuild because we have to ask for permission.” Aimable Ngiruwosanga, the area leader reveals that they are restrictions that followed the Kigali city’s conceptual master plan. Rangira explains, “With renovations they have to go through the proper channels and I am sure it doesn’t take a long time. But there are people who construct other houses in the pretext that they are renovating. That is why it has to go through the district.” Ngiruwosanga revealed that speculations circulating Gatsata settlers will be moved as dictated by the city plan. “Soon these people will be told to move and even me, I will move,” he explains. However, Rangira says he is not sure when the expropriation exercise will reach Gatsata. “Am not sure about Gatsata but we are doing a detailed physical master plan on Muhima, parts of Nyabugogo and Kimisagara [Nyarugenge district], Kinyinya and Kimicanga [Gasabo], and Gahaya and Masaka [Kicukiro].” But says with the master plan in place he is certain that Gatsata settlers will have to move in future. “Going to live in Gatsata is illegal. We didn’t have a plan before. But if we had had a plan they [current settlers] wouldn’t have settled there,” he says. Rangira also says that KCC has a long term plan of constructing low cost houses to resettle those expected to be affected by the expropriation exercise. “We have various areas we are planning to resettle people in Nyamirambo, Bugarama [Rusizi] and Kinyinya. With expropriation fears visible in the city suburbs, KCC endeavours to appease them with sensitisation efforts in the areas to be immediately affected by the expropriation process. It is however a prerogative of Rwandans to know that nothing is done to make their life miserable, rather the contrary. barigyetony@yahoo.com