Ombudsman, RISD to host national land dialogue

The Office of the Ombudsman, in partnership with Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), a local Non Governmental Organisation will, next month, host a national dialogue with the aim of sensitizing the public about their land rights and how to address land related issues. According to the Director of RISD, Annie Kairaba, through the dialogue, the public have an opportunity to present land related issues that affect their lives, and be able to understand the mechanism of addressing the issues, as provided for by the existing framework, including the current land reform process. “The population needs to clearly understand the impact of the land reform under implementation in Rwanda in relation to the protection of the land rights,” Kairaba said. The dialogue will kick off with a live radio call-in show that will be aired on five national radio stations on Sunday. According to Kairaba, during the show, a panel of experts from the National Land Center, KCC, Transparency Rwanda, Office of the Ombudsman and RISD, will all be available to provide solutions and answers to the general public. “The population will call in to ask questions on various land related issues and get answers immediately,” she said. “Rwanda has put in place good land policies and laws, but the public has little knowledge in regards to such reforms, laws and policies.” The show, to be aired on Radio Rwanda, Contact FM, Radio Salus, Radio 10 and Radio Izuba, will start at 10 a.m. The climax of the dialogue will be a two-day workshop scheduled to take place June 17-18, in Kigali. The workshop will bring together high level policy makers from the government and other stakeholders involved in land issues, including the civil society as well as local and international NGOs. RISD and the office of the Ombudsman, early this year, established a partnership to jointly fight land related injustices and monitor whether implementation of land reform programs aimed at providing more security for land rights are appropriate and fair. According to the Office of the Ombudsman, land related disputes constitute about 90 percent of the total cases they deal with. Ends