Districts earmark land for low-cost houses

Kicukiro, Gasabo and Nyarugenge districts that comprise Kigali have singled out sites for construction of houses for low income earners.This is in a bid to effectively facilitate the implementation of the Kigali City master plan.Solange Mukasonga, the Mayor of Nyarugenge, told The New Times that several locations have been earmarked to cater for low income earners, who will be relocated from areas meant for commercial or high-end houses.“We have demarcated four different sites in the sectors of Kigali, Kanyinya and Mageragere and have started to put in essential infrastructure like roads in some places while in others we are yet to start,” she said.In Kigali Sector, she said, Rugarabuge and Kigali villages were identified for low cost houses, while Taba in Kanyinya was demarcated to cater for both low and medium cost residential houses.“There are some families living in places meant for medium or high-end houses in some parts of Kanyinya. These are supposed to be expropriated. We finished the evaluation and we are just waiting to remunerate them. We hope to have compensated the families by July, when we will start giving out plots,” she added.Mukasonga further noted that sites in Mataba and Nyarurenzi villages in Kanyinyawere were also identified for low income earners while Nyarufunzo Village, also in the same area will cater for both low and medium cost houses.Low cost houses, according to Mukasongo, range between Rwf7 million to Rwf15 million, while medium houses go up to Rwf70 million.On the other hand, high-cost houses, she noted, are valued beyond Rwf70 million.“We are prepared to help all those in need of land in line with their financial capacity,” she explained.In Gasabo, the district mayor, Willy Ndizeye, said that sites in the sectors of Gisozi, Bumbogo, Gatsata, Jali, Jabana and Nduba were demarcated to cater for low income earners, who will be relocated from other places.“But we intend to identify more areas as we are still trying to look for suitable places for all kinds of houses,” Ndizeye said in a telephone interview.“But these plots are privately owned. We reached an understanding with the owners and whoever wants plots there will be paying land owners not us. There is never free land,” he added.He, however, said that owners of land who have capacity to develop their parcels of land in line with the master plan will not be relocated.“But even those who are being or will be expropriated will not be forced to acquire plots in these identified sites as they have rights to go anywhere they like. But we identified these sites to facilitate those who will need them, since we will also put in infrastructure like roads and electricity,” noted Ndizeye.Last year, Kicukiro District also announced that it had demarcated plots in different parts to cater for low income earners, especially those residing in Gahanga Sector.Gahanga, according to the master plan, is scheduled to be the new city centre, meaning that everyone living or owning land in Gahanga, and has no capacity to develop it in line with the master plan, will have to relocate to other areas.Gahanga covers 3, 669 hectares, with 1, 323 ha set aside for the city centre development.However, part of the remaining land is wetland and hilly, and cannot be developed, according to the master plan.Kigali City boundaries cover an area of 731 square kilometres, of which only 50 per cent can be developed with 35 per cent deemed as hilly. Fourteen per cent of the land is wetland while forests cover one per cent.Currently, only Nyarugenge, where the Central Business District (CDB) is located has a physical detailed master plan (PDMP) while Gasabo and Kicukiro, each has only a conceptual master plan.A Singaporean firm, SCE SURBANA, which developed the Nyarugenge physical detailed master plan, was last year awarded a contract to also develop both the Gasabo and Kicukiro plans.The issue of affordable housing has remained a major headache, with some developers saying that some of the reasons they have put their efforts on high-end housing was because, in most cases, these were previously not catered for in the city master plan.

National

Districts earmark land for low-cost houses