Profile : The life of an arbitrator

David Munyeshuri is the President of the Arbitrator’s Committee of Nyarutarama cell, Remera sector, and also the head of his village—Kibiraro 1 in Nyarutarama. He was born in 1980 at Nyamasheke district, in the Western Province of Rwanda. He attended Ecole Primaire de Buhoro and went to Lycee de Gatare (APPEDRI) for his O’ Level education. “I am a profession builder and hat is how I earn a living. People in my village entrusted me with the role of being an arbitrator because of the personal qualities I possess. This is my second term in office,” Munyeshuri said. Munyeshuri was elected as an arbitrator in 2008 and later reinstated after his first term elapsed in June 30, 2010. After the period of service for arbitrators was changed from two years to five years, Munyeshuri was once again selected by his village to represent them. An arbitrator is selected according to their integrity and social values to the community—it is also a voluntary position. “Our work is to solve conflicts that arise between the villagers and give a fair ruling without being partial. When there is a conflict between two people local officials are responsible for solving their matters,” Munyeshuri explained.An Arbitrator’s day “Since we have seven villages in my cell and the committee of cells is represented by twelve members, we meet once a week on Saturdays and look into the conflicts of the villagers we represent. “The cases are sent to our committee by the Executive Secretary of a cell since there are conflicts that need to be solved from the grassroots. “We receive over five cases at a time or none at all. In situations where there are several cases, we look into each case with the conflicting parties present. We carefully listen to each of them so that we can get the basis of the conflict and pass the verdict after conferring the information produced by both parties. “For instance, the seemingly challenging case we got was a villager of Kankonde 1 who sold a house twice to different clients. One of the clients reported and when the ruling was made, the Executive Secretary of the cell gave a vacating letter to the person who was in the house so as the first buyer could occupy the house. “After some days the person who was ordered to leave the house came to us to seek justice so that he could be given his money that he had paid for house hence the conflict was solved. “For financial matters when both parties agree on how payment will be conducted, in most cases the payer takes it to the Executive Secretary of the cell or brings it every time we meet and it’s given to its rightful owner. “Conflicts that have always been hard to solve are those that involve married couples. They are quite challenging in that they are pushed forward to another level. With the revision of the arbitrators ‘s term, an appeal desk was set up at the Sector level therefore in case someone is not contented with our verdict they have the right to appeal and probably end up in the courts of law,” Munyeshuri explained. When asked if there are no cases of social vices such as corruption and nepotism while solving the conflicts, he said: “When selected as an arbitrator, one has to consider his or her conscience above all since it a matter of always maintaining the trust invested in you by the people.” Munyeshuri is a family man, married to Solange Uwitonze and they are blessed with three-year-old Lucky Ntwali David. His Favorites Dish: - Cassava and Beans Music: - Gospel music Sport: - Volleyball Ends