FOCUS : Grass thatched houses should be made history soon

During my previous visit to the Southern province, I enjoyed a spontaneous journey where my eyes fed on the gorgeous mountains and the chilling scenery of the refreshing Nyungwe forest and meadows that stretch up to the golden sky during the mornings of Nyungwe forest. But the same eyes endured something rather saddening which persisted throughout my journey; the houses in rural Rwanda speak volumes about livelihoods in that section of the country, many are small and grass thatched and in them live a family of more than five including children. While in the car I could see a totally small grass thatched house at the edge or in the middle of a large banana plantation and I would be told that that is actually a house of the plantation owner. The journalist in me longed to find out further why the status of life is like this yet people in these areas seem to be involved in some serious economic activities mainly agricultural production. On touching base before the actual purpose of my travel, I asked a few people why the basic need of shelter and the general stand of welfare were alarming in Rusizi district. I was informed that the problem is not poverty of means parse but poverty of appropriate attitudes that match with the times. Vincent Sibomana is a farmer and a family man, he has a banana plantation, one Friesian cow and an unspecified number of goats in his homestead but he lives in a grass thatched house with his wife and five children. He says he is planning to construct a better house that he has been frustrated by the ever increasing prices of construction materials like cement, sand and iron sheets. The prime-minister Bernard Makuza in his recent visit to Rusizi district underscored the need for residents to strengthen their family lives through ensuring hygiene; basic needs provision to their children and proper feeding. Despite the presence of programs like ubudehe, EDPRS and others that have local governments development as their priority, people have not made good use of them leading to escalation of the problem of basic needs provision. The challenge of improper housing in Rwanda seems to be an issue affecting many communities especially rural areas, though some places we call urban also face such problems at a certain degree. The Youth Minister, Protais Mitali, in his recent visit to the Southern Province expressed dissatisfaction with the big number of grass thatched houses in several districts of the province. He went ahead to urge mayors to prioritize the issue of eradicating grass thatched houses in the country so as to beat the June 2010 deadline set by Cabinet. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Local Government indicates the Eastern and Southern Provinces as leading in having the biggest number of people still living in huts, with the latter having over 27,000 such houses. He however said that a survey has been conducted in the district to determine the extent of the problem with the aim of sensitizing residents on the best way to improve. Abdullah Murenzi, the Mayor of Nyanza district told the meeting of the need for a mindset change in the population. “It is not uncommon to find someone with a Friesian cow and a big plantation still living in a grass thatched house. The task before us now is to sensitise such people on the merits of living in proper shelter,” said Murenzi, with over 2000 of his people still living in grass thatched houses. The challenge has been on poor setting of people’s priorities in that many have disregarded the importance of having appropriate shelters for their homesteads, this has exposed family members to untold discomfort. This comes at the time when uptown villages in Kigali and its suburbs like Gacuriro, Nyarutarama and others are blossoming with exquisite mansions and comfortable neighbourhoods. To compromise a balance between these two categories of Rwandans the government should draw a plan of preparing and sensitising the rural people on housing matters and not just give it an occasional mention whenever officials visit. gahimore@yahoo.com