Rumonge: the new municipal administrators have not yet taken office, services are idling
Residents of the communes of Rumonge, Bugarama and Buyengero in the province of Rumonge (southwestern Burundi) say they have not had access to certain administrative documents since a month ago. They are asking for the new recently elected municipal administrators to be inaugurated. INFO SOS Médias Burundi
The administrative documents which are missing are particularly the national identity card, the certificates of possession of the parcel, etc. Residents no longer have access to services that are directly and exclusively the responsibility of the municipal administrator.
Residents talked to SOS Médias Burundi. They say that getting identity cards requires going to provinces or communes that have communal administrators.
These inhabitants are asking the authorities of the ministry in charge of internal affairs to organize the inauguration of the new municipal administrators recently elected so that the population has access again to all the public services it needs.
The new communal administrators, Augustin Minani of the commune of Rumonge, Jean Nduwimana of the commune of Bugarama and that of Buyengero Étienne Havyarimana were respectively elected on January 13, 14 and 15, 2023 by the respective communal councils.
These new municipal administrators have replaced the former administrators, prosecuted for “misappropriation of material intended for the construction of schools”, provided by the Presidency of the Republic.
Two of them, that of Bugarama Charles Karorero and Gratien Nduwayo of the commune of Buyengero, were temporarily released on December 7, 2022.
Judicial sources indicated that they confessed the facts of which they are accused before committing to return the misappropriated property.
The former administrator of the commune of Rumonge, Jérémie Bizimana, is still languishing in the central prison of Mpimba in the commercial city of Bujumbura. According to our sources, he continues to deny the allegations.
‘He forgot that he had sent an audio message to the public prosecutor in Rumonge requesting his intervention so that he would rather be dismissed instead of being sent to prison”, recall our sources.
It is on this same audio recording that President Ndayishimiye based himself to “vilify” him publicly.