VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLGB #0463/01 1351414
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (508)
R 151414Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2746
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS KIGALI 000463 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EB/IFD/OMA AND EB/IFD/ODF 
DEPT FOR AF, AF/C AND AF/EPS 
DEPT PASS TO USAID FOR AFR/EA, PPC, AND AFR/SD 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
 
TAGS: ECON ELAB PGOV EAGR RW
SUBJECT: STATUS OF LAND REFORM 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1. Land ownership has been a major issue of conflict 
throughout much of Rwanda's history, and 80 percent of 
current legal disputes involve land.  The GOR adopted a land 
law in 2005, which made it the final owner of all land in 
Rwanda and provided for leases of up to ninety-nine years; 
however, many issues remain unresolved.  A series of 
complementary laws have recently been drafted to clarify 
some of those issues, with the goals of resolving and 
preventing conflicting land claims and establishing a land 
system which fosters economic development and investment. 
Various donors, most notably UK's Department for 
International Development (DFID) and USAID, have been 
involved in the development of the land law. 
 
¶2. As with many reforms, Rwanda's land reform will 
inevitably benefit some while disadvantaging others, 
especially as there are so many competing claims and the 
issues are extremely complex.  Nonetheless, the current 
proposals are generally seen as progressive and well- 
considered.  While the majority of farmers have plot sizes 
smaller than the new minimum of one hectare, provisions have 
been made for communal ownership.  Futhermore, more specific 
guidelines and processes have been defined for government 
expropriation, in direct response to initial complaints on 
the 2005 land law.  Finally, land valuation now includes 
both the land itself and the property on it.  While the 
government's restructuring and need to clarify some issues 
have delayed implementation of the land law, the GOR 
recognizes the need for land reform and is attempting to 
prevent further delay so as not to hamper economic 
development. END SUMMARY. 
 
BACKGROUND 
----------- 
¶3. Land is the foundation of the national economy, as an 
estimated 82 percent of the population is engaged in 
subsistence agriculture and most of the territory of Rwanda 
is farmland.  In Rwanda two additional factors make land a 
highly important and contested issue.  First, Rwanda has the 
highest population density in Africa, creating tremendous 
pressure on land in a country where most of the population 
lives in rural areas and where agriculture remains the 
central economic activity.  Second, Rwanda is recovering 
from massive population shifts caused by decades of ethnic 
strife and the 1994 civil war and genocide, which resulted 
in displaced populations and overlapping claims to land. 
Land remains a key point of contention and insecurity in 
Rwanda. 
 
¶4. The average size of a household farming plot in Rwanda is 
just 0.6 hectares.  A cultivation plot economically viable 
for a Rwandan household should be at least 0.9 hectares, 
according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural 
Organization (FAO).  Traditionally Rwanda's small farmers 
divided their land between their children.  Given the small 
size of the average plot, this customary practice is no 
longer sustainable.  Further exacerbating the problem, the 
population is projected to double to 16 million by 2020. 
This will place further pressure on the already tiny plot 
sizes. 
 
 
2005 LAND LAW 
------------- 
¶5. President Paul Kagame signed an important law outlining 
the use and management of land on July 14, 2005. The law 
stipulates that the government has sole authority to 
regulate ownership and use of land.  According to the 
Minister of Lands, the 2005 Land Law aims to: (1) formally 
recognize land rights and support a land market; (2) resolve 
uncertainty over landholdings caused by the country's post- 
conflict situation; and (3) encourage consolidated use, 
increased productivity, and improved stewardship of land. 
 
¶6. In April 2006, the Rwandan Cabinet established a Land 
Task Force to oversee the implementation of the Land Law. 
It works under the authority of the Minister of State in 
Charge of Land and in coordination with the DFID Land Reform 
Team.  The existence of the Land Task Force should help 
improve the efficiency and communicativeness of the Ministry 
of Lands and Environment (MINITERE) and facilitate continued 
collaboration among MINITERE, DFID, and USAID.  The Task 
Force includes a soil and land management specialist, a 
lawyer from the Ombudsman's Office, a former provincial 
agricultural officer, and a Housing Bank officer.  These 
members have been seconded to the Task Force on a full-time 
basis for one year. 
 
¶7.   A series of complementary laws, further clarifying  and 
defining the 2005 Land Law, has been drafted with the aid of 
USAID-funded consultants and a DFID Land Tenure Reform Team, 
housed within MINITERE. 
 
VALUATION 
--------- 
¶8. MINITERE and the new Land Task Force are revising a draft 
valuation law which establishes a body to oversee the market- 
based valuation of land and establishes a professional 
association of valuers.  The valuation profession created by 
this law will also support Rwanda's growing land market.  A 
key change is that valuations will now include the actual 
land itself, and not just the property on it. 
 
¶9. The law aims to establish a mechanism to determine market 
prices for land and replacement value of improvements (such 
as buildings). MINITERE plans to finalize this draft by the 
end of 2006.  Currently, most land valuation is based on a 
series of outdated improvement schedules developed a decade 
ago. 
 
 
EXPROPRIATION 
------------- 
¶10. An expropriation law, drafted with the assistance of 
USAID-funded consultants, has been approved by the 
Cabinet and has been submitted to Parliament.  Its 
purpose is to define expropriation and the public 
interest in an attempt to regulate conditions under which 
the government can expropriate land.  The draft law 
provides a thorough and participatory process for 
determining the value of expropriated land.  Under 
earlier legislation, landholders were only compensated 
for the value of improvements to their land, but not for 
the value of the land itself.  The current draft 
legislation states that landholders must be compensated 
for the value of the land itself in addition to 
improvements, and that compensation should be based on 
market value at the time of expropriation. 
 
¶11. According to the new land law, the land leased to 
individuals must be used in a "productive" way, which is 
defined by the law as using the land to farm a crop in a way 
that protects it from soil erosion, safeguards its 
fertility, and ensures its protection in a sustainable way. 
If the land is not "productive," it can be expropriated by 
the state after a written warning that it a) has remained 
unused for three or more years, b) has been allowed to 
degrade, and c) has been requisitioned by the government. 
Francois Ngarambe, the president of the Genocide Survivors 
Organization, Ibuka, expressed concern over the implication 
of this provision on orphans who lost their parents during 
the genocide, but have not had the means to make their 
inherited land productive.  However, given the importance 
the GOR places on supporting genocide survivors, it is 
highly unlikely the GOR would intentionally disadvantage 
genocide orphans.  It is also possible, though not yet 
clear, that "unproductive" use may include the growing of 
crops that do not fit within the overall government plan 
devised by the Ministry of Agriculture.  Senior government 
officials have emphasized, however, that they expect to be 
able to convince farmers to voluntarily shift to crops that 
will provide higher incomes. 
 
 
LAND COMMISSIONS 
---------------- 
¶12. The Land Law calls for land commissions to be 
established at the "national, provincial, and district and 
town level."  The duties, composition, and organization of 
these land commissions will be defined in an upcoming land 
commissions law.  As a result of the recent local government 
re-districting, however, the commissions will likely be 
created only at the national and district levels, with the 
district-level commissions having contact with the sector 
level through possible sector land committees.  These sector 
land committees would conduct any necessary field work or 
local consultations, but their decisions would be subject to 
the approval of the district land commissions. 
 
 
LAND TENURE 
----------- 
¶13. The GOR is drafting a land tenure law, with assistance 
from DFID and USAID-funded consultants, to more clearly 
define the land rights of citizens and investors and the 
tenure system.  The GOR is currently defined by law as the 
final owner of all land in Rwanda, offering leases that 
"shall not be for a period of less than three years or more 
than ninety-nine years."  The 2005 Land Law also attempts to 
encourage consolidation of agricultural plots to improve 
commercial viability. The law prohibits subdivision of a 
parcel of land reserved for agriculture smaller than one 
hectare.  This provision of the law is geared towards 
preventing the dividing of land into unsustainably small 
plots, given that 82 percent of Rwandans are engaged in 
subsistence farming, with an average plot sizes of a sub- 
optimal 0.6 hectares.  Rwandan families are generally large, 
and this limitation has the potential to create conflict 
among possible inheritors, given the relative dearth of off- 
farm employment opportunities. 
 
 
REGISTRATION 
------------ 
 
¶14. A two-tiered land registration system has been proposed 
to ensure proper registration: a less formal system for 
rural areas and a more sophisticated system for urban areas 
and high-value land.  Currently, two separate systems are 
used within Rwanda -- one by the City of Kigali within the 
city limits and another by MINITERE everywhere else in the 
country.  The DFID team has been working with the City of 
Kigali to better understand the workings of its system.  A 
requirement that the city decentralize these duties to the 
new district level, however, has delayed the process. 
 
¶15. The land rights recording system overseen by MINITERE is 
straightforward within the Ministry, but is murky at the 
local level.  The existing system is set up to issue land 
rights certificates to landholders who have received 
allocated land from the government for a specific purpose 
(such as a plantation or a hotel).  This system has also 
been used to recognize existing land rights if the land in 
question is to be used in accordance with a specific-use 
plan.  The procedures were not established for the purpose 
of recognizing and recording land rights generally, but 
seemingly have been adjusted for such use if requested by 
landholders.  Under the existing system MINITERE issues land 
rights certificates based on the recommendation of the 
relevant local authority.  The Minister of State in Charge 
of Land stated that while local authorities are expected to 
investigate the validity of a land claim, no specific 
requirements exist to guide their investigation.  The 
Minister acknowledged that in some cases this lack of 
guidance has resulted in unfair land giveaways and collusion 
between local authorities and persons interested in land, 
with the latter seeking to have land rights certificates 
issued without a proper investigation.  MINITERE is 
committed to preventing such abuses and correcting problems 
if they occur. 
 
 
WOMEN'S RIGHTS 
-------------- 
¶16. The 2005 Land Law states that men and women shall have 
equal rights to land, but does not offer guidance on this 
point, making reference merely to the existing inheritance 
law, rather than improving the ability of women to claim 
land. 
 
¶17. Women in Rwanda are heavily involved in, and dependent 
on, agriculture.  Despite their use of and dependence on 
land, their access to land generally hinges on their 
relationships with their birth or marital families and they 
rarely hold land in their own right.  Women's land rights is 
a particularly critical issue in Rwanda where 34 percent of 
all households are headed by women as a result of the civil 
war and genocide.  Women seek to support themselves and 
their families in an environment of general land pressure 
and insecurity while at the same time facing customary 
restrictions on landholding.  Such customary restrictions 
include limits on women's acquisition and retention of land 
rights through inheritance, purchase, or other means.  In 
order to gain access to land, many women joined agricultural 
associations after the 1994 civil war, which have access to 
land through rental or temporary provisions of land from the 
government, but also usually lack long-term land tenure 
security. 
 
¶18. The government has already taken steps to strengthen 
women's rights through an Inheritance Law, passed in 1999, 
that grants women equal inheritance rights and also provides 
for the protection of property rights within marriage.  The 
reach of the law is limited, however, both because it 
contradicts customary practices and also because it applies 
only to legal, officially registered marriages, which are 
uncommon in rural areas, and only to legitimate children. 
 
¶19. USAID and DFID do not currently have plans to directly 
address gender in the context of land rights.  Additional 
steps are needed to support women's land rights, such as 
amendments to legislation to protect women in informal/non- 
registered marriages, and the children produced in these 
marriages.  It will also be critically important to continue 
and expand civic education on the new land law and to 
provide women access to legal aid.  Education and legal 
assistance could be provided through Rwanda's women's 
associations. 
 
 
IMPLEMENTATION 
-------------- 
¶20. A pilot implementation project is planned for the autumn 
of 2006 in four districts.  The laws will be further refined 
based on this pilot project before nationwide implementation 
and drafting of subsequent legislation on land use planning, 
land market professionals (surveyors and valuers), 
condominium development, land taxation, and public land 
management. 
 
¶21. On May 2, at the beginning of the Senate extraordinary 
session, Senator Joseph Karemera complained that delaying 
the implementation of the land law is stalling development. 
Karemera argued that many Rwandans are hesitant to carry out 
any developments until the legislation is clarified.  In 
addition, Karemera complained that individuals are not able 
to get financial loans for development projects because 
until the land reform is finalized, Rwandan banks are not 
accepting land as collateral. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶22. Well-managed land reform is crucial to long-term 
reconciliation and stability in Rwanda, and it is 
encouraging to hear reports that the GOR is progressive, 
open, and eager to move forward on this issue.  Despite 
progress, key issues must be resolved, such as unclear 
definition of land tenure types, controversial provisions on 
consolidation and land use restrictions, and vague guidance 
on the resolution of land disputes.  International 
consultants plan to address these issues in an ongoing 
participatory process with the GOR. 
 
¶23. The 2005 Land Law and anticipated complementary 
legislation seek to revitalize commercial agriculture by 
encouraging consolidation of landholdings into larger, more 
commercially viable plots of land, which will tend to favor 
large land owners and pastoralists. This shift away from 
subsistence farming is inevitable and desirable if Rwanda is 
to escape its current poverty.  Commercial farming will help 
the GOR increase its tax base, but it has the potential to 
adversely impact small farmers who make up the vast majority 
of the population.  The GOR will need to implement a strong 
public outreach program to sensitize small farmers and to 
promote off-farm, urban opportunities. 
 
¶24. Enforcement of the new law will be a challenge, 
considering the precedence given to customary laws over 
state laws in rural areas, the lack of functioning 
commercial courts and judges, and the heavy backlog of court 
cases.  If the rural population is to understand and accept 
the new laws, special effort must be made to raise awareness 
of the new policy - both in rural communities and among the 
local authorities responsible for implementing it and 
resolving disputes. 
 
 
ARIETTI