Controversy surrounds survivor’s eviction

MUSANZE - A decision by local authorities to evict a woman genocide survivor from a house she received from the Fund for Genocide Survivors (FARG), two years ago, has drawn controversy. Valérie Mukandahunga, 42, and her eight children were last week evicted from Susa settlement (Mudugudu) by Muhoza Sector authorities on grounds that she acquired the house fraudulently. The Sector Executive Secretary, Amiel Ndahiro said that the eviction was part of the recommendations of last year’s Local Government Ministry’s report that showed that a number of houses had fraudulently been given out. However, Mukandahunga maintains that she got the house through right channels and has supporting documents to that effect. She explained that she was registered as a genocide survivor in Kimironko sector, Kigali City suburb before transferring to Musanze district. “I have nowhere to stay with my children. I don’t have any income generating project and my husband has no permanent job,” she said. “And besides, I have laboured to expand the house, built the toilet, where do they expect me to stay, on the streets?’’ But Ndahiro insisted that an investigation carried out on Mukandahunga’s case discovered that she had actually forged her supporting documents. Seven people in Muhoza Sector who either got houses fraudulently or bought them from genocide survivors face eviction, according to authorities. Ndahiro, however, noted that the process of repossessing houses which were sold by their original owners is complicated because the new house owners also bought the plots on which the houses were built. Ends