As analysis of the draft law governing persons and family continues in parliament for a subsequent deliberation, lawyers, and civil society organisations have called for an inventory of spouses to address property management disputes and share among spouses in case of divorce. The proposal was made on April 12, as The Legal Aid Forum hosted a consultative meeting on the abovementioned bill, in Kigali, with a view for participants including lawyers, and civil society organisations to give relevant inputs that can help improve the provisions of the bill to benefit Rwandans better. ALSO READ: 10 key proposed changes in family bill you should know The President of Rwanda Bar Association, Moïse Nkundabarashi, indicated that property sharing among partners takes precedence in divorce cases nowadays, considering issues observed by lawyers — including him. He said that this is a major issue that required a legal provision on how it (property sharing) should be done in case of divorce. Among other proposed provisions, the bill seeks to address the issue of short marriages with the sole purpose of gaining properties in case of divorce. Its explanatory note indicates that in the last five years, courts were receiving complaints during divorce proceedings that the other spouse targeted properties, adding that they were logged on issues of equal sharing of property in case of marriage dissolution. To deal with this issue of short marriages (when divorce occurs before five years of cohabitation), the draft law proposes that upon request of one of the spouses whose cohabitation is less than five years, the court may order the spouses not to equally share the assets and liabilities after examining the reasons for the request. Nkundabarashi thinks that the inclination to assets in divorce cases is where the provision on how property sharing should be done “in a way that is free from what I can call theft complying with the legislation,” emanated from. Also READ: Till divorce do us part: Why the rise in separation? Meanwhile, he said some people wonder why such a debate exists, yet they are in a society where intending spouses are allowed to choose a matrimonial regime they want, such as the separation of property. Again, he said, there is a need to wonder why the regime of community of property — a method by which spouses opt for joint ownership of all their property — is the choice by default. On the proposal in the bill that, for couples that adopted the community of property regime, a judge can consider the splitting of assets into unequal shares among partners in divorce when disputes arise from one of the spouses, Nkundabarashi said that implies that there should be an asset inventory before marriage to determine what people had before marriage and what they acquired during marriage. Pudentienne Uzamukunda, Executive Director of Young Women’s Christian Association of Rwanda (YWCA), said there was a lack of inventory of spouses’ assets upon entering into marriage, yet it could help determine the property they will acquire during marriage. “When that was not done earlier, it becomes difficult to identify the assets in case of divorce or death of one of them,” she said. “I propose that when people get married under a limited community of property, there should be proof [through an inventory] showing what each of the spouses is entering into marriage with, and that must be recorded [by a civil registrar],” she suggested. A limited community of property regime is a method by which spouses agree to pool their respective properties owned from the day of the marriage celebration, as well as the property acquired during marriage by a common or separate activity, donation, or succession. Meanwhile, participants in the meeting, expressed concern over the five years of marriage that the bill proposes as the threshold for equal sharing of assets in case of community of property, wondering whether some people cannot wait until such a period to get undue property gains. They argued that an inventory of assets can be a way out.
