Local mediators continue to harness sanity in land disputes

A middle-aged man paces the compound of Rubengera Sector headquarters. He is restless and occasionally glances at his watch. The movement of his mouth suggests he is talking to himself.It is Tuesday, November 12. The sector, in Karongi District, Western Province, has set this day for hearing land cases before local mediators, commonly known as Abunzi.Emmanuel Niyitegeka, like many others, had appealed to this Mediation Committee against a decision by Agacaca Cell mediators to award his neighbour Seraphine Mukeshimana a two-acre piece of land.Niyitegeka claims that the land belongs to him, arguing that the defendant confiscated his land during the Genocide against the Tutsi when he had fled to DR Congo.When he repatriated in 1998, “Mukeshimana was not willing to surrender the land,” he says.After hours of public hearing, which had started the previous week, Rubengera mediators ruled in favour of Mukeshimana.Domina Mukakabera, the president of Rubengera Mediators Committee, said they had found enough evidence to the effect that Niyitegeka’s uncle sold the land to Mukeshimana’s father in January 1993.“The mediators went down to the field and found that even testimonies from the neighbours confirm this transaction took place, so we concluded that the piece of land belongs to Mukeshimana,” Mukakabera ruled.The committee continued to handle other cases. One of the victors in the land cases said the mediators had relieved him of the long legal battle in a conventional court. Another woman said land cases were common but the mediators were doing their best to settle them.“Land has become a precious natural resource than ever, after an exercise of land registration which made it a bankable asset. Each and every Rwandan dreams to inherit a piece of land, however small, with some people passing through illegal means to obtain one,” one of the residents said.Land wranglesThis competition has, apparently, become a concern at the grassroots, because it sometimes leads to fatal conflicts.The latest report by Office of the Ombudsman, released last week, says that 15 per cent of murder cases in the country in the last fiscal year were related to property, mainly land.Of the 894 complaints the Office of the Ombudsman received, 256 (28 per cent) were related to land.Despite this, public faith in mediation committees is as high as ever.“If there were no Abunzi, the caseload backlog would just be overwhelming. These committees sort out conflicts before they escalate,” Johnston Busingye, the Minister for Justice, said.Busignye said the homegrown justice system has involved people who master the issues among their neighbours and use an amicable approach to reach a consensus.Joint effortsThrough their project, “Securing Land Rights,” Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (Risd), a local non-government organisation, supports the mediators’ activities in 10 districts.Ann Bahire, the Risd fields officer in Karongi District, told this paper that with an estimated 30 cases per month, inheritance, land grabbing and land transfers dominate the complaints.“We even have seen cases of parents who had given right of inheritance to their children without a written will. Now that the country is registering land and they see it as a precious asset, they took advantage and registered the land in their names, prompting relatives to drag them to court,” Bahire said.Emmanuel Safari, the executive secretary of Cladho, a rights NGO partnering with Risd in the Securing Land Rights project, said they support mediators with books that help in recording information about land disputes and other necessary documents for dispute resolution.They also help them with copies of legal of legal instruments that could help in settling local disputes.The NGOs also collaborate with the Ministry of Justice to ensure capacity building of the mediators.They train mediators in following up on each case until the ruling. Available statistics from the ministry shows that between July, 2012, and May, the mediation committees received 40,118 cases, of which 32,474 were successfully settled. Only 6,123 cases were referred to conventional courts.Minister Busingye said: “We are planning a land rights awareness campaign. We know land registration exercise has sorted many of these issues, but we want each and everyone to understand that their conflicts can end in the families and not further than Abunzi. Our stance is that land issues must never degenerate into homicide.”

National

Local mediators continue to harness sanity in land disputes