After the government’s decision to evict residents of Gasenyi area so that it could build a presidential palace in March 2017, the concerned people complain about the lack of compensation.
A Bulldozer destroying one of the houses in Gasenyi, on April 11, 2017
They were told they would be compensated soon but they are still waiting. “We have been waiting to be compensated since March. We have asked the ministry of environment to help us. We were told to wait but it’s taking longer. Some months later, we asked the mediator (Burundian Ombudsman) so that he could help push the case forward in vain” says one of the evicted residents.
He also spoke of a problem of the small compensation that the government is planning to give them. “They said they would give BIF 250.000 per are. This was calculated based on a law dating from 2008 while we are in 2017” says another evicted resident.
Those former residents of Gasenyi area speak of a big loss. “I have a five and half are-piece of land that I bought at BIF 9 million. With the rate at which they intend to compensate us, I will only receive one million and eight hundred thousand Burundian francs”, he adds.
Célestin Ndayizeye, Minister of environment, says investigations must be conducted first to know the exact number of those people and make sure they are really the owners of those parcels. “This takes much time” says Ndayizeye.
He promises, without precision, that the compensation will be given soon.
The former owners of parcels where the presidential palace is being constructed demand the government to accelerate the case and give them compensation as agreed.
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