GITEGA October 19th (ABP) – The curator of the Gitega national museum (center of the country), Mr. Pascal Ndayisenga, sounded the alarm on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, to request rapid intervention to rehabilitate the said museum.
That house, which is supposed to be at the service of the public to show them the heritage in its possession, faces multiple and serious challenges, lamented Mr. Ndayisenga. For more details, he indicated that his physical condition is pitiful: no toilet, no water, no fence, rainwater leaking through the roof, cracked and damp walls, puddles of water rainwater in the exhibition room, an obsolete door frame eaten away by insects, poorly maintained gardens and a museum enclosure dotted with passenger paths.
Furthermore, Mr. Ndayisenga indicated that the national museum does not meet international standards due to the smallness of the storage room and that of the museum’s heritage exhibition as well as the lack of details on each object.
Faced with those challenges, Mr. Ndayisenga repeatedly sent correspondence to hierarchical authorities, but in vain, he regretted. “I requested, without success, the intervention of the general directorate of tourism so that it can understand the problems of the museum and consequently take decisions to remedy them, but without success,” he said. He would also like the same general management to increase the pricing of museum entrance fees. For Burundian citizens, he explained, the price is 500 BIF, for young people and students the price is 2000 BIF. As for foreigners, it is 5000 BIF per person.
Despite the challenges mentioned above, Mr. Ndayisenga positively appreciated the level of visitor attendance at the museum. To support his remarks, he indicated that from January to September 2023, the museum recorded 2,415 visitors who generated an amount of nearly 1.8 million BIF. That paltry amount is due to the entrance fee to the museum which is very low, he lamented.