Gasabo district accused of halting $6 m school project

KIGALI - A multi-million school project that is supposed to be set up in Gisozi, Gasabo district has been on standstill for the past three years allegedly over the incompetency of district authorities. The school that is worth $6.5m (approx 3.7bn), belongs to One Zulfat Mukarubega, the proprietor of Rwanda Tourism College University (RTUC) which currently operates from a rented facility in Kicukiro district. RTUC provides under graduate programmes in Hotel & Tourism. Mukarubega expressed interest in the land, after which she approached Gasabo district officials who authorized the expropriation of the people on the land. Mukarubega paid fifty residents off the land, but five others refused to vacate and instead hiked the prices for their plots which has hitherto stagnated the project. Since 2006, Mukarubega has been frequenting the Gasabo district headquarters looking for a solution for her predicament but to no avail. However, when contacted yesterday, she said that the district authorities had promised to solve the matter. “They told me they were going to solve the matter as soon as possible, but they haven’t called me. So I am waiting,” she said. The land in question was expected to accommodate a complex that will include the university, a hotel and an exotic restaurant which would be used by the students during their trainings. Mukarubega recently pleaded with City Mayor to intervene in the matter at a security recent meeting, since according to her the Kenyan partners in the project were growing impatient because of the standstill. She also said that delaying the project was affecting her in terms of unnecessary costs in renting the current premises. “I am paying a lot of money in rent, I need your help to solve this problem because it seems there is a problem somewhere,” she pleaded with the authorities. In reaction City Mayor Aisha Kirabo Kacyira criticized the frail style of doing things by the authorities which has derailed projects of this nature. She ordered Gasabo district mayor Claudine Nyinawagaga who had also attended the security meeting, to solve the matter. “Can you imagine such a project being stopped for three years yet the district had authorized the expropriation?” she wondered. Efforts to get a comment from Nyinawagaga were futile by press time as she was reportedly locked up in a meeting. Ends

National

Gasabo district accused of halting $6 m school project