GITEGA, April 2nd (ABP) – Burundi Senate President, Emmanuel Sinzohagera, has asked the Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, as well as other institutions involved in the development of communes, to be vigilant and to multiply awareness sessions for communal administrators so that communal coffers are not emptied in those pre-electoral times.
Sinzohagera made those remarks on Tuesday, 1 April 2025, in the hemicycle of the senate in Gitega (in the centre of the country), when he opened the ordinary parliamentary session for April 2025. He urged the senators to monitor the situation closely, and if in doubt, he promised to call the relevant minister to provide clarification and advice whenever necessary. A similar recommendation was also made to the senators.
“The session we are opening is the very last of our mandate,” he reminded them, before asking them to work hard so that none of the planned activities remain unfinished. “Let’s not forget that we must always focus on representing the people who gave us our mandate, right up to the last minute of our term of office,” he insisted.
As for the people, the Senate President advised them not to let themselves be distracted by the forthcoming elections, and to stay at work to increase production, while safeguarding peace and security in order to avoid any troublemakers during the election period, he added.
Among the achievements of the senators during their holidays, Sinzohagera mentioned the abundant harvest. He took the opportunity to thank the government for making agricultural inputs available to farmers in real time. He asked the ministries responsible for agriculture and industry to work in synergy to find lasting solutions to the problem of conserving agricultural surplus, processing it and finding a market for it.
In addition, the President of the Senate announced three bills scheduled for analysis and adoption during the April session. Those include the bill amending law Nº1/12 of 28 June 2017 governing cooperative societies in Burundi.
The opening ceremonies of the parliamentary session in question were attended by a number of personalities, including ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic and consular corps accredited to Burundi, the governor of Gitega province, representatives of the judiciary, representatives of the defence and security corps and representatives of the services operating in the country’s political capital.