Photo of the week : the President of the National Assembly prohibits deputies from denouncing the current crisis, intends to reintroduce the death penalty for those disrupting the economy

The lower house of the Burundian parliament on Thursday passed the general State’s budget for 2024-2025 financial year. Some deputies have denounced since Wednesday when the Vice- President of the Court of Accounts went to read the analyzes of his office, the current crisis which is shaking the small nation of East Africa, especially the shortage of fuel, one of them asking their peers not to take so much time talking “because there are some who come home on foot”. This Thursday, other “representatives of the people” raised the issues of the population and the high cost of living which has reached its peak in Burundi. This did not please the President of the National Assembly Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe. He asked them to “find other arguments” while threatening to “cut their fingers.”

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According to Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe, MPs who denounce the current crisis should stop because Burundians still manage to find something to eat.

“Look for another twist and other arguments to use because we are all Burundians. Do not continue to enrich this rhetoric according to which Burundians are poor and plunged into unspeakable poverty. Burundians have something to eat but if you want every Burundian citizen have a plane, have a vehicle, this can never happen. When you express yourself like this, I would like to ask you: What does a Burundian who is not poor look like and what does a rich Burundian look like? Is this person poor? How do you describe him? said Mr. Ndabirabe, known for this defect.

Lies about the fuel crisis

At the time when the Burundians reached the point of going to the border with Congo to stock up on fuel following the fuel shortage and the Head of State and the Prime Minister spoke about the lack of foreign currency and economic sanctions of 2015-2020 as the two main causes of the fuel crisis which has just lasted almost 42 months, having intensified in recent months, the President of the National Assembly affirms that there are individuals hiding very huge quantities of fuel at home.

“You have often underscored the fuel crisis, but I wonder: these people who hide fuel in houses where someone can be surprised with 5 thousand liters, 3 thousand liters of fuel…Why does this person act like this?

And you say that there is no fuel while among you there are some who hide it in the houses or your friends but you say nothing. And they resell this fuel at very exorbitant prices. And you pretend to be surprised like the colonists do. The settlers impose conditions on us that keep us in poverty and they come to make fun of us, telling us that African countries will never develop while they are plundering us,” he said.

Reintroduction of the death penalty

“[…] Don’t be like them (the settlers). People hide the fuel so that the people revolt. Even now, look, there are trucks bringing in fuel. But where does this fuel go? We will ask the government to reintroduce the death penalty for anyone caught stealing fuel because it amounts to impoverishing the country and the people you mention. Let them be killed on the spot, perhaps the situation will improve a little,” insisted Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe.

Rwanda, eternal scapegoat

According to Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe, there are state agents who tear their hair out and spend entire sleepless nights “so that the fuel can be available”. He regrets that there are people who sell “Burundian” fuel in Rwanda.

“Aren’t there Burundians who go abroad to say: don’t give fuel to Burundi, Burundi is not solvent. Why don’t you denounce them ? It’s the government who provides the foreign currency to import fuel but some store it to resell it in Rwanda…”, slandered the President of the National Assembly of Burundi.

Cut fingers

Addressing MPs who have denounced excessive taxes and the current widespread crisis facing the small East African nation, Mr. Ndabirabe called for their fingers to be cut off.

“What do you want? Aren’t there any of you who sell in foreign currency? Or your friends? But you bark: there are no more currencies, the country has no foreign currencies! How do you manage you to build these villas that we see? These are not the currencies that you are hiding? And you refuse to pass these currencies through the BRB* We should cut off these fingers that you use to exchange these currencies while the country is becoming more and more poor and its inhabitants,” he declared in a very severe tone.

And to conclude in the same vein: “You shout everywhere that power has failed. We must tell you the truth now…. And when we imprison them, it is you yourself who will say that the prisons are crowded. Some even say that they will never give their money to the government so that it can be used. But you are only whining and you refuse to denounce the disruptors of the economy so that we can hang them a pole.”

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Our Photo: Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe, president of the National Assembly of Burundi who wants to reintroduce the death penalty for disruptors of the economy.