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Ethiopia- Housing agency evicts tenants

By Yohannes Anberbir

Capital

The Government Housing Agency (GHA) has urged Kazanchis Supermarket and other public and private organisations to leave a building it rented to them decades ago.
The reason for the evictions is that the agency wants to relocate its headquarters to the building adjacent to the Hilton Hotel.

The building and even the area are commonly known as Kazanchis Supermarket, demonstrating that the shop is well-established there.
“The harm would be less if we were using the building for office purposes, but it is a marketplace established for many years and this is a devastating measure for our business,” said a salesperson in the supermarket.

Companies inhabiting the building have attempted to negotiate with the agency on options such as obtaining an alternative building in a comparable commercial area; however, the agency is not willing to do that, said the source.

“It is not an eviction,” Adisu Ejegu, public relations manager of the agency, told Capital, as according to him the agency has given another building to all of the evictees.
The move is a result of the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) study that recommended the agency should have all its offices in one place, Adisu added.
A proclamation that restructured the agency has given it the power to execute expulsion order to tenants of government houses who have breached their contracts, and to persons occupying houses without having any lease contracts.
The agency was fighting over 1,000 court cases before its new structure came into being in 2007. However, the new law authorised it to expel tenants without going through the judicial system.