2.4 Research interest
and motivation
As UN-Habitat stipulates, 46% of the African population lived
in slums/informal settlements where poverty, overcrowding, unemployment, crime
and pollution are prevalent (ECA and UN-Habitat, 2008). This is a big challenge
not only to the governments and their partners, but also for researchers to
offer their contribution in revealing areas that need immediate intervention
and recommending sustainable remedies to respond to ever-increasing housing
needs.
With reference to Kigali city, the city council in
collaboration with the government has established policies and laws to
streamline urban housing and informal settlement upgrading. These include urban
housing policy, land tenure reform policy, land law and Kigali master plan. The
implementation of these policies, laws and other regulations in place faces a
lot of challenges due to a significant number of informal quarters in Kigali
city. This has attracted attention of the researcher and encouraged him to
carry out a study in one of the informal settlement quarters in Kigali city to
assess the impact of the transition from informal housing to formalized
housing.
In addition, this research was conducted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for a bachelor's degree of science in geography
at the national university of Rwanda.
2.5 Research
hypotheses
1. There are challenges in implementing rules and regulations
related to housing especially at grass root level in Kigali city.
2. Residents in informal settlement are inappropriately
expropriated which results in creation of new informal settlements in the
neighborhoods/peripheries of Kigali city.
2.6 Research
objectives
General objective
The overall objective of this research was to assess the
challenges in the transition from unplanned settlements to new housing
development in Kigali city.
Specific objectives and research questions
|
Specific objectives
|
Research questions
|
|
Highlight the existing situation and new trends of housing in
Kigali.
|
1. How is informal housing defined in Kigali city?
2. How is the housing status in Amahoro cell in Muhima sector?
3. What is planned for Amahoro cell according to Kigali
conceptual master plan?
4. What does the government plan for the poor residents in
informal houses in Amahoro cell?
|
|
Analyze residents' perception on new housing development
strategies in Kigali city.
|
1. How do people in informal houses perceive housing development
in Kigali city?
2. How do people in informal houses conform to the new building
requirements in Kigali city especially in their cell?
|
|
Discuss policies, rules and regulation standards that control
housing in Kigali city.
|
1. What are the policies, rules and regulations that control
housing in Kigali city?
2. What are the strategies used to implement housing policies,
rules and regulations in Kigali city?
|
|
Analyze the impact of implementing new housing development
policies on unplanned settlement dwellers in Kigali city.
|
1. What are the positive and negative impacts that result from
the implementation of new housing development policies on unplanned settlement
dwellers in Amahoro cell?
2. What does the leadership of Kigali city do or plan to do in
order to overcome the negative impacts?
3. What are the recommendations towards better and socially
inclusive housing in Kigali city?
|
| 
