KAYANZA September 13th (ABP) – All the villages and neighborhoods of Burundi hosted on Monday, September 12, 2022 the elections of village councils and neighborhood notables. To respond to that appeal, the Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Mr. Martin Niteretse, went to his native hill of Magamba, in the Murima zone of the Kayanza commune and province (north), a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In an interview with the press after performing that patriotic act, Minister Niteretse said that the Burundian government has taken the decision to further decentralize the judicial system. “The process began with the registration of notable hillside candidates to continue with the holding of elections and the establishment of that body at village level will lead to the decongestion of jurisdictions in different courts so that there is a filtration of files forwarded to the level of higher courts, he said. The latter will deal with large-scale trials and not just any case, said Minister Niteretse. For him, the remaining step will be training and swearing in of the elected notables so that they know the mission which awaits them, their level and their competence. He was delighted that all that will serve not only the population but also the judiciary.
Mr. Niteretse also indicated that the village notables will have to know all the cases, judge them, appreciate them and give their point of view. When asked whether there will be no overlap between the new notables elected by universal suffrage and the chiefs of hills or the old notables called “Abashingantahe”, the Minister of the Interior did not go there by four paths. He specified that since the elected notables will have taken the oath, the former Bashingantahe will no longer have the right to the settlement of conflicts. As for the hill elected officials who come under the administration of the territory, Mr. Niteretse added that they will have to say as local representative of the responsible and hardworking government but that they will not have to interfere in the management or the functioning advice from village or district dignitaries.