Official says people selling off donated houses

HUYE – Over 400 people who received free houses under the government housing project in different districts of the Southern Province, have sold them off, an official disclosed. At least 299 people in Nyaruguru district sold off their houses, 107 in Gisagara and 37 in Nyamagabe district, according to an evaluation team. Speaking at the house evaluation event in Huye district on Thursday, Jean de Dieu Udahemuka, the national official in-charge of housing for the vulnerable, condemned both those selling the houses and the buyers, saying the transaction was illegal. He also warned of tough punitive measures for those who sold off those houses. “Recipients of houses should be held responsible. And I think those ones who sell their houses should no longer receive government assistance,” Udahemuka said. What remains unclear is whether the houses would be confiscated. Esperance Nzaninka, a resident of Gishamvu sector, argued that she sold off her house because she was moving to another location. Meanwhile, some beneficiaries complained, saying the houses they received were poorly constructed. “Authorities are really doing nothing to assist us. Some of the houses that we received were poorly constructed. The houses can collapse on us at any time,” one resident of Gishamvu village, who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation, said. ‘They do not even come to us to see the conditions in which houses are after their completion.” Ends