KCC evicts Kiyovu kiosk owners

KIGALI City Council is evicting all Kiosk owners in Kiyovu, Nyarugenge district as required by the new Kigali Master Plan. The new plan is designed to make the city a major commercial and service centre in the East African community, as well as making the city environmentally friendly. Reuben Ahimbisibwe, a city council inspector confirmed the eviction yesterday, saying kiosks in Kiyovu are no longer needed. He said the council was currently developing detailed plans to reduce the site of slums in various areas in the city. “These Kiosks are located in wrong places and we have to relocate them elsewhere. We are trying to get another alternative location,” Ahimbisibwe said in a telephone interview yesterday. The Master plan also caters for the provision of social amenities throughout Kigali City and addresses its expansion which has led to shortage of land where in some places the cost of plots has risen to as high as Frw 7 million. But kiosk owners are protesting the eviction saying KCC did not warn them in advance. They say KCC settled them legally in Kiyovu. “They are now evicting us forcibly without any warning and they don’t want to compensate us,” Damascene Murindahabi, one of the affected kiosk owners said. Alex Safari also owns a kiosk said: “It’s painful and unfair for city authorities to vacate us without getting us another alternative place or compensation.” Kiosk owners Sunday Times talked to said they posses valid papers which allow them to stay until 2010. “We had a contract with Kigali City Council. We mobilized the funds and paid KCC in order to own their kiosks, so they have to refund us first,” Safari said. But Ahimbisibwe insisted that kiosk owners have to vacate first before any compensation is made. Ends