The 2nd Deputy – Speaker of the Senate meets the local elected representatives of the Bubanza province

The Second Deputy-speaker of the Senate, Honourable Cyriaque Nshimirimana, accompanied by parliamentarians elected in the constituency of Bubanza, met local elected officials, heads of decentralized services and social actors of that province, on July 27 and 28, 2021.

Those meetings were held consecutively in the chief-towns of the communes of Musigati and Mpanda. In Musigati, he met those from Musigati and Bubanza communes whereas those from the communes Mpanda, Rugazi and Gihanga communes met in Mpanda. Both the two meetings focused on social, economic and security aspects.

In his message to the participants, the Honourable Nshimirimana indicated that he had come to discuss with them, and listen to the concerns of the population in order to remedy those concerns where possible or submit them to the authorized bodies if no immediate remedy if found.

He called on those local elected officials to keep on strengthening collaboration with security and defense bodies as well as the Congolese living close to the border between Burundi and the DRC in order to enhance peace and security inside our country and on the border between our two countries.

He urged them to be characterized by good administrative leadership in order to serve as a model for the population. He did not fail to remind them that they should sensitize the population on the family planning and the eradication of cohabitation

The Second Deputy-Speaker of the Senate also urged the participants to fight against Covid-19, protect the environment by preventing soil erosion. He urged them to strengthen income-generation activities especially in the field of agriculture and livestock. He suggested that the population should combine arable land and adopt the same crop for the same growing season in order to increase harvest which, afterwards, they should not waste. Furthermore, he added, children should be taught values of national unity.   

Among the concerns raised by the participants, the issues of the need for construction of the Kajeke dam, land issues the lack of drinking water were most recalled.

Regarding the series of conferences organized by the Senate on the events of 1972 in Burundi, he told them that the main objective was the quest for the truth about those massacres in order to reconcile, to remember those events and pay homage to those who were murdered, to give an opportunity to witnesses to present their testimonies in order to contribute to the qualification of those massacres. These would contribute to verify the level of reconciliation of Burundians, in order to meet the demands of the article 289 of the Constitution of the Republic of Burundi, he added.

The Second Deputy-Speaker  of the Upper House of the Parliament has, moreover, appealed to the Burundians, so that they can break with globalization, because “it is not the ethnic groups that kill, rather bad governance”, he hammered. At the end of the presentation of testimonies, he urged them to draw up lists of all victims, and submit them to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), for the qualification of those events.