Residents from Nyabwishenya Sub County in Bukimbiri Constituency, Bukimbiri County, Kisoro district are seeking an immediate response from the Ministry of Local Government over their request to be split from Bukimbiri and re-joined to Bufumbira North County.
The residents, in a bold move have said they will not renew their National Identity Cards under Bukimbiri County, come August when Government plans to renew all existing National IDs in the Country.
Barihafi Posiano, the area LCV councilor says tribal sentiments are growing stronger every day because the Bakimbiri people are segregating and stigmatizing the Bafumbira residents of Nyabwishenya referring to them as Banyarwanda because they seek Rufumbira language.
In their petition written to the Kisoro District LCV chairperson, Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and the Ministry of Local Government, the Sub County leadership say they submitted their request before the 2021 elections, but it fell on deaf ears.
Nyabwishenya Sub County was formerly part of Bufumbira North however it was gazetted to belong to newly created during Bukimbiri County.
Barihafi says when residents of Nyabwishenya go to Rubuguri Market for trade, they are verbally abused and called all sorts of names indicating that they are Banyarwanda and are not welcome.
He decried the loss of vital minutes at the Sub County expressing the residents’ wishes to be returned to Bufumbira North.
Thousands of National IDs from Kirundo Rubuguri and Nyabwishenya were considered invalid while others received their IDs as aliens.
According to sources from NIRA Kisoro, during the mass enrolment program in 2014, many people were thought to be Congolese or Rwandese with some people got getting National Identification Numbers starting with NF or NM instead CF and CM.
Also, several people made mistakes by sharing similar fingerprints which caused the anomaly in the system.
The Kisoro District Chief Administrative Officer, Hajji Badru Mayanja says, the issue being raised is fairly new to him.
However, he admits that a spilt from Bukimbiri County is possible if the leaders can meet all the required documents from Sub County to the district and eventually to the Ministry of Local Government, which makes the final pronouncement on the matter.
Kisoro District LCV chairperson Abel Bizimana says it is not wise to pursue a separation from Bukimbiri because the process is tiresome and worse still, it will further fuel tribalism and sectarianism which is a deterrent for development.
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