Rwanda Initiative for
Sustainable Development

The first ever National Land Dialogue kicked off yesterday. The dialogue, that is organised Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable Development (RISD), a local NGO, and the office of the Ombudsman, has brought together key stake holders in the land reform process. These include, donors, high government institutions and the Civil Society. Dr.Emmanuel Nkurunziza the Director General of The National Land Centre. (Photo by F.H. Goodman, edited by Deicole)

Dr.Emmanuel Nkurunziza the Director General of The National Land Centre. (Photo by F.H. Goodman, edited by Déicole)
One of the key participants in the Dialogue is the National Land Center. The New Times’ Fred Oluoch Ojiwah talked to Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza the Director of the National Land Center about some of the pertinent issues surrounding the land reform process currently going on. Excerpts.
Give us a background about the institution you head.
My office happens to be the same office of the Registrar of Land Titles. Principally this institution was set up three years ago. Its main responsibility is actually to implement the new land policy and laws that have been put together .So I must say that we are the principle agency for Government to implement its new land tenure programme. The National Land Centre is thus involved in various aspects of land management. This ranges from land use planning, administration, registration, surveying and related components.
That is a huge task placed on your office considering that this is being done for the very first time in Rwanda.
I agree with your observation. However this being a new institution, we are still within the set up stages of the institution. But I must also say that while setting up or by building the necessary components and units, we are at the same time rolling out the priority programmes. For such priorities we have established the necessary inputs to get them going. In this principally I will mention the land registration programme that is being undertaken as we speak. The other is the preparation of the National Land Use Master Plan which is almost being concluded. These are two critical tools needed in managing land in the country. The master plan will help us in the optimal utilization of land. By this I mean assisting us in knowing what use is supposed to be allotted in a particular area. Land registration is supposed to assist us in guaranteeing security of tenure for land holders through promoting land as an economic resource.
While you are going about doing all that putting in place structures and programmes, the citizen in the country side has issues that need urgent redress. So there seems to be issues on the ground while your office is going about doing all these things you are saying.
What I can emphasize is that while we are setting up, we are actually on the ground. I think I have given you an explanation of how we are doing this. For instance land registration is on going within all 30 districts of the country. Just over the last one year we have managed to register over one million parcels of land. So I must emphasize that building up of this institution or setting up processes does not in any way hinder us from undertaking our mandate. This is being done concurrently.

Can you comment on some of those complaints that surface on the ground?

These complaints are not really principally land issues. They manifest themselves through land but they are basically societal issues. If you critically look at them they are largely intra-familial issues that emanate from things like inheritance, polygamy or land sharing.

But let me interject by saying that these issues largely impact on land.

Absolutely. However my take is that these challenges are not to be sorted out only by the National Land Centre. It needs a joint effort to be managed even by local government arms at the lowest levels possible. If somebody is conflicting with his brother because of a simple land boundary, that is not an issue to wait for the National Land Centre to sort out. It is an issue that can be amicably resolved at that level. We are of course providing tools that are making such issues to become less problematic through instruments like land registration. This helps with addressing boundary issues. Even at the moment a lot more can be done at different levels without necessarily feeling that this office is the only one that can assist with sorting out some of these challenges.
Expropriation seems not to be done right going by the complaints that has been reaching media outlets. In your own view what is not being done right or how can things be done in a better way.
As I had said this is one issue that we have always been candid about. This is in terms of what has been implemented in the right way and what has not been implemented correctly. There is a law that governs expropriation which was enacted in 2007.This law is very clear on the procedures that are supposed to be used