The ongoing land re-registration process is likely to be slowed down by the mounting number of cases of land-related conflicts.

Local leaders receive certificates after a recent RISD training. (photo Abraham Rumanzi)

It is in this respect that the Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD) has been conducting training of local leaders, mostly in regions where land-related disputes are on the rise.

RISD head Ann Kairaba explained that the training helps the leaders to get more familiar with the land laws and how they could use them effectively to solve cases more quickly.

In addition, RISD has a monitoring team which assesses whether the trained leaders are putting into practice the skills they are taught.

Recently, local leaders (Abunzi) from Cheru in Kamonyi district and Gahini in the eastern province have been trained. According to one trainee from Gahini sector, Samuel Nzamwita, most of the cases he encountered were family disputes over land. The most common complaint, he said, are family members who claim that they have been allocated an unfair share from an inherited piece of land. “They normally want equal sizes,” Nzamwita explained.

Another regular kind of dispute are clashes between stepchildren over the division of the land, he added. And a high number of cases are related to returnees who fled from the country during the 1994 genocide, and have found their land occupied by others.

To compound the problems, the parties involved often have no official documents to back up their claims, which makes it hard for a local leader to judge who is telling the truth.

Land commissioner Peter Bazimya for his part pointed out that if land remains unused, it can easily become the object of a conflict. “Some people always want to take advantage of the undeveloped land,” he remarked. He therefore advised people always to fully exploit the land available to them.

Furthermore, Bazimya noted that people should register their land since the title deed can be used as collateral to get loans from banks and it reduces the possibilities of getting into land disputes.

According to the land registrar Emmanuel Nkurunziza, the areas where the registration process is currently taking place include Gasabo district, Nyamagabe in Southern province, Karongi in Western province and recently in Rulindo in Northern province.

But Nkurunziza admits that it hasn’t always been a smooth process given that some plots were the object of disputes while many owners didn’t have documents. And there is also the question of payment. “Some people are still reluctant to pay the registration fee of 1000 francs,” he remarked.

Related articles:

Local leaders acquire skills in solving land disputes 

Better land policies for protection of human rights 

Land tenure regularization gets a £20 million boost 

Land titles to be used as collateral