Officials meet with Papyrus proprietor

The controversy surrounding a popular Kigali City hangout continues even after KCC and other officials met with the proprietor yesterday.According to Kigali City Mayor, Fidele Ndayisaba, the management of Papyrus Restaurant and Bar has no right to run what he calls a discotheque, even as the investor in question, Serge Nsanawe Ndekwe, says he does not run a discotheque, but a pub.The meeting was also attended by ClareAkamanzi, Chief Executive Officer, RDB, and Faustin Mbundu, the Chairman, PSF and Dennis Karera, head of the association of hotels and restaurants.While the mayor said that Papyrus, based in Kigali’s upscale neighborhood of Kimihurura, does not face imminent closure as reported yesterday, he insisted the proprietor must cease operating a “discotheque” since he did not seek authorisation to construct it.“KCC only advised the proprietor to comply with approved plans of the building in a letter dated October 8, 2012,” Ndayisaba said.“We did not authorise the construction of a discotheque in that area. If he (the owner) wants to run a night club there, he should go through the right channels and apply for a license; we will then assess the application accordingly and provide an appropriate answer,” Ndayisaba said.KCC argues that Nsanawe originally requested to construct a steam/sauna, hair salon and gym, but instead chose to put up a discotheque – besides the approved restaurant and bar wings – which disrupts the serenity of the neighbourhood.“All we are doing is trying to protect the interest of the nearby residents while at the same time helping Nsanawe to run his business in an orderly manner,” Ndayisaba said.But the mayor warned the city authorities will not tolerate breach of construction rules and regulations.Faustin Mbundu, the Chairman of PSF, who also attended the meeting, said that one of the resolutions reached was to ensure that Papyrus gets ample parking space for its surging clientele.“We are trying to work with the city authorities and the investor to make sure that the facilities in place are upgraded to accommodate the growing clientele for the security and comfort of both the business and the neighbouring residents,” Mbundu said.“For example, most of the companies in that area don’t work at night and have ample parking space left idle. The management of Papyrus could negotiate with them with view of renting their space at night, which would sort the parking issue out.”KCC drew a lot of criticism on social media yesterday, particularly on twitter, with several tweeps criticising city authorities for the way they were handling the issue. Some people pointed out that the same investor had previously closed a similar business in the same location – due to similar reasons.But mayor Ndayisaba insisted that the public had not influenced KCC’s decision to meet with Nsanawe yesterday.“Not at all, I didn’t even notice what people were saying on twitter because I was busy. This is a normal procedure and there is no crisis. We planned for this meeting yesterday and it went smoothly,” he said.However, the proprietor of the business in question, Nsanawe, speaking to The New Times last evening denied running a discotheque, instead calling the section a pub.“Discotheques have dance floors, we don’t have one. We just play some music for our clients, and we are careful not to make noise for the neighbours. I don’t think closing it would be the solution,” he said, adding that an official from Gasabo district had alerted him they would come to close the “discotheque” later in the evening (yesterday).Nsanawe said he lost Rwf80m when his previous business at the former Papyrus was closed “in one day” by the city authorities over “limited parking space, noise security”, adding that he risked suffering a huge loss at the new facility. Another operator has since opened a restaurant at the same premises that used to house Papyrus.“I don’t know why they keep closing my business abruptly all the time. This pub accounts for 40 per cent of the total proceeds from this business, closing it means a huge loss.”He claimed that neighbours were only concerned by the noise that comes from the sports bar upstairs, a problem he said he had started to address by encouraging the clients to shift to the “pub” downstairs – claiming that closing the latter may not help matters.“As for the open-bar upstairs, I’m willing to put windows but I need maybe between 3-6 months to do that,” he said.On parking, Nsanawe said he had contacted the proprietor on the neighbouring Flamingo restaurant, who had promised to let him use his parking lot after 11p.m. “That can be fixed by next week,” he said, even as he questioned the city’s parking concerns, arguing that parking is a general problem in Kigali. “We probably have the biggest parking lot among all Kigali pubs.”He said the entire 800-capacity facility was built at about Rwf910 million, including a mortgage of Rwf410m.However, in a statement yesterday, KCC said that it is “presently engaged in correcting past mistakes, where Kigali was developed without respect of proper urbanisation guidelines and where developers change plans without seeking the necessary approvals”

National

Officials meet with Papyrus proprietor