Since their eviction in April 2017, former inhabitants of Gasenyi quarter have not yet been relocated. They have staged a sit in this 16 January 2018 in front of the office of the ministry of environment to remind the minister that they are still leading a perilous life.
Gasenyi area where the government is building President’s office
Gérard, one of the evicted residents asks the minister to have mercy and try to push their case forward as agreed. “The minister promised to rehouse us at the beginning of January. We are here to remind him that we are leading a miserable life,” he says
Another woman met in front of the office of the environment ministry, says even their children were obliged to give up their studies. “Our children do no longer go to school. We were chased by the families that hosted us just at the beginning and the situation became worse and worse”, says Joyce.
She also asks the government to give them enough compensation and plots of land where they can build comfortable houses to shelter their families.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Omer Niyonkuru says the ministry is aware of the poor conditions they are living in and reassures that they will be given plots of land soon in Maramvya area.
About compensation, Niyonkuru says their main focus today is to give them houses highlighting that compensation is another level of the problem. “No one has ever been satisfied with compensation”.
Gasenyi inhabitants were forcibly evicted from their pieces of land in April 2017 for the construction of the new President’s office.
IWACU Open Data
