Vivien Munyaburanga

Two families lived on this plot in Kiyovu. After redevelopment, 93 families will. That single number is the rehousing model, and @NewTimesRwanda gave it proper space this morning. I spoke for RUPI in the piece. What I tried to say, and I am still not sure I said it well enough: investors can build. They cannot relocate people. Land pooling, compensation, expropriation and titling are government work. In Kiyovu, two families is manageable. At Mpazi scale it is not, and you cannot empty the plot, park families somewhere for 1 or 2 years, and then go to tender. That wait is the part nobody wants to hold. The site has to come with a rehousing plan that is already running, not a promise that people will be moved later. Then the second layer, which we have barely started in Rwanda: condominium titles that actually work, rent-to-own rules over 15 to 20 years, density bonuses for developers who reserve a share of units as affordable. Kagugu, Mpazi and Nyabisindu have taught us a lot. We have not written most of it down. So, 3 questions: To fellow consultants and RUPI members: where does this break on site? Never mind the write-up. What did the field show that we still have not put into the rules? To year-4 and graduate students at UR and elsewhere: pick one of these mechanisms for a final-year project (or a thesis). Give us Rwandan evidence. There is almost none. To the landowners reading this: would you give up your plot for a share of the building? Why or why not?

I see Kigali City tomorrow… connected by tunnels through the thousand hills.