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A new assessment carried out on ‘Kwa Dubai’ real estate has shown that more than 60 houses need to be re-worked on, a development that will require many families to vacate their homes temporarily.
For about a month now, the Kinyinya-based estate has been a hot topic after one of the houses in it partly collapsed.
In a press conference by the City of Kigali (CoK) on Monday, Mayor Pudence Rubingisa noted that the new assessment showed that 54 of the 114 single-floor houses need repairs, while all the seven houses that have two floors (a ground and upper floor) had structural issues that needed more attention.
As such, all the residents occupying the storied houses have been ordered to temporarily vacate them so that they can be fixed, whereas those residing in the 54 single-floor houses can continue staying in them as the repairs are done.
“We realised that there is need to act faster,” Rubingisa said, noting that 18 families which were renting some of the apartments as well as some five which had bought them permanently have been told to leave temporarily.
The government will foot their rent fees at their temporary residences for one month as they wait for the way forward, the mayor said.
“We had to act in a fast manner so that we can protect the lives of the citizens. For those who had bought these houses (two-floor apartments) can get places in which to reside as the repairs are done, while those who were renting can even go on to find new houses,” he noted.
Having held discussions with the residents and understood that some had used borrowed money to buy the houses, CoK says it will engage the banks to restructure their loans so that their time of payment can be extended.
“The investigations (into the estate’s shoddy housing) are continuing so that people who played a role in it can be held accountable. But for now what we are doing is trying to get the citizens out of the trouble,” Rubingisa said.
