The Ombudsman, Anastase Murekezi, will appear in parliament on Tuesday where he is expected to present his institution’s report for the year 2018/2019. The report makes recommendations in the areas of the office’s mandate to fight corruption and injustice, declaration of assets by public officials, and assessing whether laws governing access to information and leadership code of conduct among others are being adhered to during the period in review. A brief seen by The New Times indicates that during this period, the Ombudsman received 480 petitions related to injustice. Out of these, 365 were addressed, 102 are still under investigation by necessary institutions while 13 are still pending. While citizens who filed these cases come from different districts all over the country, City of Kigali takes the lead with 129 complaints due to its proximity to the Ombudsman’s office. Eastern Province follows with 95, Southern Province with 80, Western with 76 while Northern Province had only 70 cases. According to the brief, Eastern Province recorded the second biggest number of petitions because of the high number of land-related issues that stem from government’s redistribution of land in the province. President Paul Kagame in 2008 launched the land redistribution exercise where thousands of hectares were given to the landless after it was taken from those with large tracts of farm and pastoral land. Gisagara district is listed as having registered the smallest number of complaints with only three, Rutsiro and Kirehe recorded five each. Besides the districts located in Kigali, Rwamagana registered 24 complaints, Musanze 23 and Gicumbi 20. The high number of cases from Rwamagana district are attributed to the number of people who move from Kigali in search of more affordable land. The issues in Musanze and Gicumbi districts are mostly related domestic wrangles from mainly polygamous families. While the Ombudsman found that Rwandans have improved with regards to their understanding of their rights, it was discovered that most of the issues reported by citizens are based on their dissatisfaction of the decisions made by their local leaders and courts. The report will be presented before a joint session of Deputies and Senators. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
