Parliament has urged institutions to pay people their compensation promptly for property taken through expropriation to pave way for projects of public interest. It made the observation in Kigali Wednesday while receiving two representatives of 37 Nyabihu District residents petitioned the Parliament to help them get their compensations from Rwanda Energy Group (REG) which is pending for the last five years. The two residents, Innocent Bwanakweli, and Pierre Rukebesha, explained that they were owed over Rwf6 million in total. Their property was expropriated to make way for a power transmission line in the district in 2016. “Our property was valued, a list made out, and the amount of money that we would receive was established, but we have waited for the money in vain,” Bwanakweli explained. “We were promised compensation on multiple occasions by REG, but deadlines were missed several times,” he said, adding that local leaders, and the Ombudsman, were aware of their case. Breaching the law MP Veneranda Nyirahirwa, the vice-chairperson of the Committee said that, overall, the delays or issues in expropriation payments stem from non-compliance with the provisions of the law relating to expropriation in the public interest [which was enacted in 2015]. “The law provides that before expropriating a resident’s property, they should be paid their due compensation. But, this law is not complied with,” Nyirahirwa said. In 2019, MP Nyirahirwa said, REG officials had told the Committee that they were going to solve the issue as soon as possible, but that has not been done. Appearing before the same Committee on Thursday, March 12, 2020, REG officials said that the delays in compensation were a result of some files which were not complete because some residents had requested for more compensation. Another reason they put forward is that valuers held on some residents’ compensation files because contestation arose over the valuation. “We had some projects from the past from EWSA (Energy Water and Sanitation Authority) time and the beginning of REG for which we started the works before doing the compensation,” Ron Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of REG said. “These days, we do not start any project without first paying compensation before,” he added indicating that REG has so far serviced 64,000 cases worth more than Rwf11 billion. “For the few cases still remaining [estimated to 2,700], we are fully committed to solving them quickly. As for the cases mentioned in this Committee, I think by April we will have completed compensation,” Weiss indicated. Law should be abided by The law relating to expropriation in the public interest provides that the approved fair compensation shall be paid within a period not exceeding 120 days from the day of its approval by the district or City of Kigali Council or the relevant ministry. It states that if fair compensation is not paid within such a period, expropriation shall become null and void unless otherwise agreed upon between the expropriator and the person to be expropriated. The law further stipulates that the compensation for disruption caused by expropriation to be paid to the expropriated person shall be equivalent to 5 per cent of the total value of his/her property expropriated. While providing its assessment of the 2018/2019 activity report of the Office of the Ombudsman, last month, the Senatorial Standing Committee on Political Affairs and Good Governance said that by the end of 2019, the government owed at least Rwf17 billion to 19,477 people in expropriation arrears countrywide.
