CIBITOKE, January 14th (ABP) – The inhabitants of the locality of Muhumure, Ndava-Village of the Buganda commune in Cibitoke province (north-west of Burundi), who have not been rehabilitated in their rights after having ceded their plots for the extension of the Ndava-Village Communal High School in 2006, now breathe a sigh of relief.
The governor of Cibitoke province, Mr. Carême Bizoza, accompanied by a representative of the natives of the Ndava zone, Déo Nsabimana, made a trip there on January 9 to listen to the grievances of those who demand their rights with information from local administrative officials and local residents.
Governor Bizoza gave the floor first to a representative of those who came to him to file complaints in order to be rehabilitated. The man by the name of Pascal Niyonkuru explained the genesis of the question, and the failures of the commission set up in 2009 to install them in another property obtained for that purpose.
According to the latter, a total of 43 families from Ndava-Village have, at the request of natives of the Buganda commune, agreed to give their plots for the extension of the Ndava-Village communal high boarding school. On the other hand, the same families should be settled in another place.
However, the said commission set up to settle the 43 families rehabilitated only part in 2009, and appropriated the other part of which most of the undistributed plots were sold to other people.
From then on, those who have not been rehabilitated have always demanded their rights to the Buganda commune authorities, without success. It was in 2017 that the 14 families entrusted themselves to the Ombudsman institution which, after four trips to investigate the issue, recommended that the district restore those people’s rights.
The provincial governor thus took matters into his own hands to help the Buganda communal administration to resolve, as quickly as possible, this issue which has persisted for a long time. He demanded that the lists of those who bought plots from false buyers be sent to him the day after the meeting. Governor Bizoza also forced those who sold stolen plots to return them or reimburse their buyers, without conditions.
Note that even the representative of the natives of the Ndava zone commended the decision of the governor of Cibitoke to recover the property rights of those people from Ndava-Village, who spent almost 16 years claiming.