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When Justin Bimenyimana’s 95-year-old father passed away in 2018 in Musanze district, the family was immersed in grief and didn’t remember about registering the deceased with the Sector Office as required by law.

Even after they buried the deceased, the family procrastinated, mainly because of the long distance to the sector offices, which requires one to cover a distance of three hours on foot.

"We ended up missing the 15-day deadline to have filed my father’s death with the civil registration officer at Musanze sector. Then we were told we would be fined for the delay, which only delayed the process,” he said.

With such circumstances, he said he ended up registering his father’s death after six months and only because the siblings wanted to share their father’s land.

When he eventually went to the sector, he said it took him several days to get the death registered simply because of the tedious process.

"It required an official document from the cell leader as well as affidavits from family members which I had not taken. Sometimes the civil registration officer would not be available due to many duties and then I had to come back the next day,” he said.

It is better that death registration is done by cell leaders or even better, by Community Health Workers who are close to residents, he recommended.

Bimenyimana is one of many who might not be registering deaths of their relatives due to the rigorous process involved.

Sectors leaders acknowledge challenge

According to sector executive leaders who spoke to The New Times, there are still challenges in registering deaths, especially where the deceased has not died from a health facility.

She says there are better prospects ahead following a new civil registration system that was introduced at health facilities last year in August, where newborns or the deceased can be automatically recorded and the information relayed to the sector authorities.

Providence Musasangohe, the Executive Secretary of Gisozi sector in Gasabo district said: "When a person dies from home, the sector requires proof of both the death and the next of kin’s relationship,” she said.

She said relatives only remember to register the dead when there is property involved that they want to split it.

Jeanne Uwamahoro, an official from Remera sector said that the death registration deadline has been extended to 30 days from the current 15 days, and no fine is being imposed on those that delay to do so.

However, if people miss the death registration deadline, they must first go to court to authenticate the death and relationship with the kin.

NIDA speaks out

Josephine Mukesha, the Director-General of the National Identification Agency told The New Times that NCI-CRVS System that was officially launched in August last year to register births at hospitals must also register deaths of patients.

She said that this followed the enactment of the amended 2016 Law Governing Persons and Family, with clauses on civil registration particularly changed to improve the registration of civil events like births and deaths.

However, she said, there is still a challenge of deaths that occur in ‘community’ since people remain reluctant to register their loved ones that pass on.

The challenge, she said, is also being addressed.

"There is a presidential order which will allow for the decentralization of births and deaths registration in the to the cell level,” she said.

However, she said Covid-19 has disrupted the process of training personnel at cell level to be able to take on the exercise.

"We have trainers at district level to train cell officials. It will take time but it will be successful. The decentralisation system is being piloted in at least four districts,” she said.

The role of death registration

Yusuf Murangwa, the Director General of National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda told The New Times that having accurate statistics on deaths just like births, is very important for government to plan better.

"Decentralization will help. We shall certainly have more uptake once registration is taken to both the hospital and at the cell level.”

According to the BBC and UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) investigation, only eight African countries out of 55 have an efficient system through which births and deaths are registered.

These are Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles and Mauritius with compulsory and universal civil registration systems - known as CRVS systems.