Following President Paul Kagame’s just concluded citizen outreach tour, leaders have been encouraged to improve their service delivery, according to Jean-Marie Vianney Gatabazi, the Minister of Local Government. President Kagame’s outreach tour last week in the Southern and Western provinces – the first since the outbreak of Covid-19 – allowed citizens to interact with the president on different matters, as other leaders took note, Gatabazi said as he was speaking to the national broadcaster recently. “The citizens were eager to meet the president, with a big turnout and joy, and they had time to present their thoughts, wishes and sticking issues we as local and other concerned authorities should have solved,” he said. “We have noted the existing need for improvement of service delivery in order to solve the issues before they are presented to the head of state.” The outreach tour came nine months after new local leaders, including district mayors, were elected. Gatabazi said the tour served as a lesson for the new leaders to understand the work they are expected to do. Some of the notable issues, Gatabazi said, were corruption and that of contractors who fail to pay wages to workers. He warned the grassroots leaders against malpractices. “The leaders who do not perform their duties, time is up for them because we cannot continue to sit idly by,” Gatabazi said. “Another notable issue that the president reminded us is fighting corruption,” he said. “The citizens have heard from the president that offering anything to leaders when seeking services should stop. “But for that to happen, there needs to be the citizens’ role in pointing out the malpractices and in sharing information. Then we will play our role as the authorities in following up on any official who is reported to have taken a bribe, lay them off and prosecute them for the citizens to have their rights.” Some of the issues that needed urgent attention included the one of some 800 households located near the cement factory Cimerwa in Rusizi District, who will have to be relocated to a safer area. Gatabazi said leaders had followed up on some of the issues presented to President Kagame, which were later proven to have been presented in a misleading manner. They included the case of a citizen who claimed to have been dispossessed of his property in Kigali. Gatabazi said different institutions would improve their service delivery through collaboration to prevent the issues to drag on for years.
