Jabana residents to petition gov’t over compensation

A few weeks after some residents of Jabana in Gasabo District whose properties were destroyed by stone mining activities disagreed with the outcome of the evaluation process, the affected residents are now threatening to petition the local government ministry to have their complaints heard. The affected residents allege that what came out of the evaluation exercise carried out late last year was not worth their destroyed properties. “They carried out the evaluation without consulting us and neither did they show us what they came up with to see if it equates with our destroyed properties,” one of the residents who preferred to remain anonymous said. “They just took their own findings to the firm which released the money which was not equal to our destroyed properties,” added another source. A Chinese firm operating the stone quarry in the area released Rwf 16.9m mid February as a compensation package for over 100 families that were affected. The company had used powerful explosives to blast rocks that destroyed the properties of the nearby residents, especially houses, which was in contravention of the contract signed between the firm and Kigali City. When the district began the compensation process, some of the residents refused the package and demanded that a new evaluation exercise be carried out. Efforts to reach the district Mayor, Willy Ndizeye, were fruitless by press time as he was not answering his phone. However, in a recent interview, Ndizeye said that the district and Kigali City were still looking for ways of ending the two-year standoff. Ends

National

Jabana residents to petition gov’t over compensation