Residents of Bwiza neighborhood, located in Bwiza zone, Mukaza commune, Bujumbura province, are raising a serious alert regarding practices they describe as abusive, oppressive, and contrary to principles of good governance.
The head of Bwiza neighborhood, AKIMANA Claudine, announced the organization of a so-called “thank-you” ceremony scheduled for 05 December 2025, stating that it was meant to show her gratitude to the population for electing her to lead the neighborhood. However, what is presented as a communal and celebratory initiative has, according to residents, turned into a forced money collection operation, imposed on a population already struggling with severe economic hardship.
🔶 Contribution Imposed under Administrative Pressure
According to multiple consistent testimonies, residents are coerced into paying sums of money to finance this ceremony (rubanza), without any legal basis, collective consent, or transparency regarding the use of the funds.
The collection is carried out by the leaders of ten households (nyumbakumi), acting on direct instructions from the neighborhood administration. Small business owners — including bar, shop, and small-scale vendors — are particularly targeted, being perceived as easy sources of revenue.
Residents report facing repeated pressure and indirect threats, implying that refusal to pay could lead to administrative reprisals, such as harassment, arbitrary sanctions, or exclusion from neighborhood affairs.
🔶 A Vulnerable Population Already at Breaking Point
This situation is all the more shocking given that the residents of Bwiza — like Burundians in general — are already facing an alarming socio-economic situation, marked by extreme cost of living, skyrocketing prices for basic goods, massive unemployment, and increasingly suffocating poverty.
“We struggle to feed our children, yet we are being forced to pay for a celebration. This is not gratitude; it is humiliation,” says a resident speaking anonymously.
For many residents, this imposed collection constitutes a direct assault on their dignity, a disguised form of extortion, and a clear abuse of power by an administrative authority that is supposed to protect and serve the population.
🔶 Urgent Appeal to Authorities and Civil Society
In response to this situation, residents demand the immediate and unconditional cessation of this money collection and call on communal, provincial, and national authorities to intervene without delay to stop these practices.
They also urge civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and independent media to take up this issue to prevent the normalization of such administrative abuses.
Residents emphasize that a neighborhood chief has no legitimacy to impose financial contributions on citizens for personal or symbolic ceremonies, especially in a context of widespread poverty.
“A public administrator serves the people. They must neither extort nor exploit them under the guise of authority,” they insist.
Within our organization, we strongly condemn this abusive and unacceptable practice. We call for the immediate halt of all forms of forced money collection from citizens. Such practices seriously undermine the dignity of the population, exacerbate social vulnerability, and constitute a manifest abuse of authority that cannot be tolerated.