25-year-old Clarisse Ingabire has for the last four years been in and out of court over a property inheritance wrangle with her maternal aunt. The bone of contention is property that belonged to her late father. 

Born in 1989 in Nyaruhegeri, Gisagara district, in the Southern province, Ingabire is the last born in a family of four children. Her siblings, along with her parents, were killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

She survived the tragedy together with a maternal aunt who became her caretaker and also, the custodian of her parent’s property after 1994.

"My father owned a big chunk of land and part of it is a forest in Gisagara. Since I was a child, my aunt managed the property. But in 2005 when I was in senior three, I discovered that my aunt was trying to sell the property. I got the information from our neighbours. When she realised that I had found out, she tried to send me away from home making it look like I was a spoilt child,” Ingabire narrates.

She says that when people intervened, her aunt decided to make her sit home for a whole month without going to school.

"I later decided to go to Fund for Genocide Survivors (FARG) for school requirements assistance, which I was granted. FARG put me in a boarding school, Groupe Scolaire de Muhondo APAPEM in Gakenke district. I stayed at school even during holidays,” Ingabire recalls.

She adds: "At some point I felt that the only reason my aunt was taking care of me was because of my father’s property. I was young so I could not get involved in property issues according to the law. So the district took the responsibility of monitoring the property although my aunt still had rights to it. I decided to continue with school.”

Ingabire stayed in school until she completed senior six. She is currently a second year student at Institute of Agriculture Technology and Education (INTAKE) in Kibungo, Rulindo district. She is pursuing a Bachelors in Education in the Department of Economics Management.

"When I turned 21, I was old enough to claim my parent’s property. But I encountered very many challenges. I didn’t have the finances to fight my aunt in court. I was lucky the school employed me and I got some money which helped me acquire some legal assistance so as to get my father’s property back,” Ingabire narrates.

She adds: "Unfortunately, my parents died when they were not officially married. This meant that to declare the property, I had to go to court for a paternity claim. This raised a lot of issues and my aunt decided to pay the witness that could prove that I was daughter to my late dad to not come forward. I lost in the lower court. I decided to go to the high court and luckily I was able to win the paternity claim.”

Ingabire believes that the challenges she faced during the fight with her aunt over the property were because she is a girl and she attributes this to the misconceptions related to rights to succession.

"I believe if I was a boy, my aunt would not have treated me the way she did because in Rwandan culture, a boy gets automatic rights to succession at birth which is not the case for girls although the law grants us those rights. I have not yet received rights to the property but we are in court and I’m hoping justice will be served,” Ingabire says.

The explanatory note of the Draft Law regarding matrimonial regimes, family donations and succession states that in order to solve the issue of females who are unable to inherit the property of their deceased parents when a law allowing them to be heirs is not yet in force, it is recommended that this law becomes immediately applicable.

This means that all cases pending before courts shall be adjudicated in accordance with this law but it shall not have any retroactive effect on already completed acts (Article 96). All succession cases which commenced on April 6, 1994 and property has not yet been settled by court shall be partitioned in accordance with this law (Article 97).

"Depending on the explanations I’m getting about the law on succession, I’m hoping that genocide orphans, especially girls, will be able to inherit the property of their parents and the pending cases will be solved amicably,” Ingabire says.

The public speaks out

Jean Damascene Nsanzumuhire, a legal advisor and helpline coordinator at the Genocide Survivors Student Association (AERG) says that the draft law on matrimonial regimes which has the succession aspect does not have the retroactive effect.

"The main challenge is that some caretakers, direct or indirect family members who took the responsibility of taking care of the orphans of the Genocide especially the girls, sold the property. When the child is old enough to claim their property, the caretakers for instance decide to tell the children that since their mother died in the Genocide with no right to succession, the child can’t claim their mother’s property in such a scenario,” Nsanzumuhire explains.

He adds that the draft law should have a retroactive effect especially for the Genocide survivors.

"Without the retroactive effect for the Genocide survivors, many orphans have no rights to succession of their parent’s property because the caretakers breach the customary law before the Genocide.

"Caretakers end up denying orphans of the Genocide the right to their property claiming that they are not children of the deceased. This has been hard for the orphans to prove the claim since the caretakers say that the child is not of the deceased. These laws need to have a special clause that is related to genocide consequences. For example, the parent’s claim should have an active effect because orphans are losing their rights to property,” Nsanzumuhire says.

When orphans get the parent’s claim, it can’t be dated back and so caretakers use that to hold on to property that is rightfully the child’s, especially property that was sold.

"The draft law should have a clause so that rightful owners are able to claim their property in regards to succession. The law should be specific and make some clarifications about the rights of Genocide survivors,” adds Nsanzumuhire.

Epimack Kwokwo, Executive Secretary of League for the Defense of Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region (LDGL) welcomed the amendment of the 1999 matrimonial and succession law.

"Based on the former matrimonial and succession law, some family members took advantage of this situation by depriving the legal heirs of their rights only because they were female. In the new draft law on succession, it is high time to protect the right of female children to succeed from their late parent without distinction of any kind. Referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights and the state should guarantee that none is victim of discrimination,” Kwokwo says.

Article 38 of the new draft law guarantees the right to ascending partition; it states that: "Without discrimination between males and females, all children, or their descendants if children predecease their parents, have a right to ascending partition, except those deprived of this right due to misconduct or ingratitude”.

While Article 44 continues to state that: " Natural persons alive at the moment succession commences are eligible to inherit property, including any absent persons assumed to be alive at the time, as well as any unborn children of the deceased who are born alive”.

Article 45 reinforces this protection by eliminating the discrimination saying that: "All children of the deceased, as defined by the Civil Code, shall inherit in equal parts without any discrimination between male and female children.”

"This legal provision guarantees an equal treatment between female and male heirs. This is a great progress and improvement in assuring the enjoyment of women rights in Rwanda. What is needed now, it’s the citizen mobilisation to fight for their rights to succeed, particularly female heirs whose rights to succeed were violated for long,” Kwokwo adds.

He says: "In some cases, we need to be cautious to avoid permanent conflicts between family members by providing legal advice, mediation or reconciliation sessions or training on how to solve those issues from the horrible past during which discrimination was not a human rights violation. The way forward is to ensure public awareness by raising the need for both male and female heirs on the new law once it is passed.”

According to Jean Pierre Kaitare, head of Legislative Drafting and Translation department at the Rwanda Reform Commission, the draft law regarding matrimonial regimes, family donations and successions is to cater for what is stated in the 2003 constitution that stipulates that both boys and girls are equal before the law.

"The spirit of the draft law is to solve issues and pending cases regarding succession that were not addressed in the 1999 law. As long as the property has not yet been partitioned, Article 96 of the draft law states that the law will have a retroactive element,” Kayitare explains.

Kayitare is part of the team that is presenting the law regarding matrimonial regimes, family donations and successions to Parliament for amendment. The team has so far presented 40 Articles of the draft law.

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I say :

Sensitising society about the law on inheritance will help change the mindset on females inheriting property in Rwanda. Some people are still stuck in the past where inheritance of property was for only males. The law exists but very few Rwandans are informed on what is demanded by the law. Claver Haragirimana, Founder of OPROMAMER

If parents can understand that all children are equal then the inheritance issue can never be a problem. But we still have parents who favour boys over girls. This affects children even when they are adults.  Alice Eudoxie, Public Relations Officer at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda (INMR)

Mindset change is achieved through constant reminders and education. It’s true some people still believe that a son should be more privileged than a daughter, but with a constant reminder that both girls and boys are equal before the law, this will help address the misconceptions that inheritance of property is only for the male. Christine Tuyisenge, Executive Secretary of National Women Council

Education is the best way to help society deal with the misconception that females can’t inherit property. The aspect of culture has shaped the perception that the only time women inherit property; it belongs to the deceased husband. It needs to be discouraged. Jacko Gollan, Businessman

The issue of inheritance is something important because it caters for the economic capacity. Both girls and boys require equal opportunities on inheritance. Some individuals’ perceptions that boys should have a bigger share of inheritance than the girls is not right at all because they are all children and deserve to be treated equally. Society needs to know that offering our children an equal chance to property is the same as offering them the same chances to economic empowerment. The excuse that girls will get married and get property from their husband’s family is not logical whatsoever. Actually if the girl’s family gives her property, it will be of help to her new family in economic terms. Jean Pierre Mujyambere, Kabuga resident