The Ombudsman, Anastase Murekezi, has said that issues surrounding land related matters continue to top the list of the cases that are filed with his office, reflecting the same pattern over the course of the last few years.

Murekezi said this on Tuesday October 27 while presenting his institution’s 2019/20 activity report to members of both chambers of parliament where he said that land disputes are not unusual since most Rwandans largely depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

The breakdown

Murekezi told the parliamentarians that some of the land issues that his office has received relate to locals who allege that local authorities used their land to build homes for those who were living in high risk zones.

"The land owners were promised compensation which would be done by giving them the land that was originally owned by those who were relocated elsewhere. However, that did not happen. This issue was rampant in Gatsibo district but we also experienced the same in other parts of the country,” he said.

Of the 640 cases received, Murekezi said that 32.4 per cent of them were land related adding that there is a possibility that the number could increase due to the number of court cases that are still ongoing.

This means that the number of cases regarding the completion of land based court judgements are currently at 22.02 per cent while the ones relating to expropriation are at 8.8 per cent.

The 1959 land issue

Murekezi said that one of the challenges his office has dealt with since 2016 has been to find a solution for a land issue that is constantly raised by Rwandans who fled ethnic killings in 1959.

Upon the liberation of Rwanda in July 1994, Rwandan refugees who had fled the country since 1959 repatriated.

The land-related laws provided that repatriating Rwandans would be resettled and may not necessarily recover the land they used to have before fleeing the country.

As a result, returning Rwanda were resettled along Gishwati forest in Western Province, Nyagatare in the Eastern Province and other parts of the country.