KCC halts expropriations

Kigali City Council has temporarily halted expropriating land owners in the city until all the land acquired by real estate developers has been developed. Kigali City vice Mayor in charge of finance and economic development, Alphonse Nizeyimana, confirmed the development yesterday. “There is enough land acquired by many real estate developers, both for commercial and residential purposes, ready to be developed. We therefore, decided that these chunks of land be developed first,” Nizeyimana said. Over 1,000 hectares have already been acquired by various developers since 2008 and have not utilized them despite having in place a six-month deadline for every developer to have utilized the land. Among the main developers is the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) which has over 150 hectares in Kagugu, Gacuriro (Gasabo district) and Lower Kiyovu in Nyarugenge District. Others developers are Housing Bank of Rwanda (HBR) which has about 100 hectares in Kinyinya,50 and 15 hectares in Rusororo and Gacuriro respectively, both in Gasabo District. Also to be developed is Akumunigo, Nyamirambo in Nyarugenge District where low cost residential houses are to be constructed. Nizeyimana also said that Kigali districts like Kicukiro also have large chunks of land to be developed. “With all this land, we found it necessary to halt the expropriation exercise,” he said. He also identified government land like the current KCC and the Office of Tourism (ORTPN) premises in Nyarugenge district which are supposed to be redeveloped. KCC is set to vacate its current premises by the end of the next financial year (July 2011) after setting aside Rwf 410m in its 2010/2011 budget which will be acquired as a loan to construct its new facilities. “The fact that we did not even include the expropriation exercise in our 2010/2011 budget is a clear indication that expropriation exercise in all parts of Kigali city will be for another time but not now.” He, however, noted that there could be exceptions whereby the ongoing road construction in the city would affect some places. “If at all it happens, we will have no exception but to expropriate those who will be affected. Ends

National

KCC halts expropriations