Rights Group Slams Rwandan ‘anti-thatch’ Campaign

By Henry Neondo

KIGALI---Hundreds of Batwa families have seen their homes destroyed in recent months, forcing them to live in the open during the rainy season.

The authorities plan to destroy all thatched roofs in the country by May this year. Under the destructive scheme, families with means are meant to build new houses at their own expense.

The very poor (which include almost all Batwa) are supposed to be provided with iron sheets to replace the thatch, and the sick and elderly should be given completely new homes. But many huts have been destroyed without new homes being provided.

Early this year, Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame pledged his government’s support to “ensure decent housing for all”, noting that it was one of the top priorities of the state.

The ambitious plan has seen the government work closely with the communities through cost sharing.

According to the Mayor of Kigali, Fidele Ndayisaba, Kigali had about 1559 people living in grass thatched houses.

So far, only 1093 houses have been constructed with another 400 expected to be completed shortly.

But the move has not gone down well with a section of Rwandans.

There have been concerns in the manner the exercise is being carried out. There are reported cases where women who had just delivered and newlyweds were left homeless and in the cold after their houses were demolished without any conscience.

Homes with old iron sheets have not been spared either.

To be hit hard are the Batwa, the most marginalized people in Rwandan society. Rwandan Batwa are subjected to deep-seated racism and discrimination on a daily basis.

The Batwa, also known in some contexts as the pygmies of Central Africa number between 80,000 and 100,000 and reside across the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Between 28,000 and 33,000 Batwa live in Rwanda although data is not disaggregated by ethnicity, which creates difficulty in making more concrete estimations.

In Rwanda’s Southern Province, 30,000 thatched huts are said to have been destroyed in the last three months. Thousands of families have been left homeless.

The Governor of the Southern Province has justified the demolitions by saying ‘people were seemingly happy to stay in their thatched houses and showed no commitment to leave them.’ Survival International has protested to the Rwandan authorities.

But President Kagame maintains that the move to get people out of grass-thatched houses and getting them into decent houses is a government policy that is justifiable.

“We would like all Rwandans to live a better life. Grass-thatched houses are temporary abodes and moving people into better houses is part of Government’s rural settlement policy”.

He says the problem could be in implementation of this exercise but not in the policy itself. “There is no doubt that the goal and intention of this policy is positive”, he says.

Stephen Corry, Survival’s director, says, ‘destroying Batwa’s homes, against their wishes, leaving them drenched by the rains, sounds like a sick joke, or the action of an enemy force. That their government is doing this ‘for their own good’ is deplorably arrogant. You don’t improve people’s housing by demolishing their existing homes and leaving them with nothing.’