The City of Kigali officials have said that they were misunderstood on the issues regarding the latest instructions on party tents.
This week, the city released instructions requesting people who provide space for weddings and other public gatherings in tents to abide with rules and regulations regarding facilities that bring together many people at ago, and to comply with the city Master Plan in general.
“Apparently, we were misunderstood or it was not implemented as required. The plan is not to remove the party tents in general, it is rather to check whether the standards are being respected, ” the city mayor Pundence Rubingisa said during a press conference today.
“By standards I mean, do I for example have all it takes to avoid noise pollution so that what I do cannot be an impediment in my neighborhood, is here enough sanitation and hygiene-are there enough toilets, sufficient parking lots…”
On noise pollution, the city mayor said, that the issue is not just about the third party, or the people outside the event, but even those in the event, “how they are affected.”
Speaking more on other standards, the mayor said that some people even get authorisation but abuse it.
“It’s case of people who get authorisation to use a multipurpose hall for 200 seats capacity, yet, they bring in 600 people. It’s a problem,” the city mayor said.
The issue of party tents however, caused controversies in the city, and the journalists had several questions to ask. Some wondered if this issue of pollution also affects some renowned events/party tents like in the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village-famously known as Camp Kigali.
Some asked whether the tents could be put in one place, dedicated to weddings, while others talked about the tents that have been booked for more than one year now.
Rubingisa said that the standards do not just regard the tents, but all other houses that host a big number for parties, meetings and prayers(churches), offices on one side.
On the other side however, the city mayor said that even residential areas have some standards to follow, including the idle plots in order to respect city master plan.
On pending challenges around tents, the city mayor said they have a meeting with people who have them on this September 22 to have common understanding on the requirements, and to answer some questions if any.
Party tents are increasingly becoming attractive to the party goers, especially weddings, where they seem to replace multipurpose halls.
