At 18, Germaine Mukamusoni, left her parents’ home in Ngororero and went to Muhanga to look for work.

In Muhanga, she met Bosco Subukino, a motor cycle taxioperator and the two fell in love and started living together but never legalized their union.

Mukamusoni was a fruit seller in Muhanga and both she and her boyfriend contributed to the welfare of their household and also saved some money to secure their future together.

 "We rented a small house which matched with the income we had at the time but resolved to build our own house,” she says.

After constructing a 5 bedroom house and buying three plots of land, things went wrong between the couple.

‘He started treating me badly, and chased me out of the house after our second child. I was obliged to go home and waited for him to calm down”.

During that time, her boyfriend got another woman whom he took to Kigali and married legally and went back to Muhanga to live with her.

"After seven years, I found myself on the streets with two children. He even refused to give me my clothes and burnt them. When I reported him to local officials, they decided that he should give me Rfw10,000 every month but even then he only did 3 times and it wasn’t the full amount. It has been a year now,” a crestfallen Mukamusoni says adding that her ex-boyfriend acknowledges that she contributed to the properties but has refused to give her some.

Co-habiting women have rights too

Olive Uwimana, the Legal representative at Pro Femmes/Twese Hamwe, an NGO that aims to advance women, peace and development in Rwanda says women who cohabit have rights too but advises that the best solution to such problems is for spouses to live together legally.

"You can’t tell a woman who has lived with a man for years to leave without anything, just because they are not legally married,” she said.

The law on Gender Based Violence has a provision which stipulates that when a man leaves a woman he has been cohabiting with and marries another legally then he must share his property with his ‘wives’ equally.

If they fail to agree on how to distribute the property then either of the parties can file a case in court.

Jean Maurice Munyentwari, a legal consultant says the law governing matrimonial regimes, donations and successions is silent as regards to distribution of property for cohabiting couples.

However, judges use common sense in reaching a decision on equal sharing when a couple has children and property together.

"I know an example of a man who wanted to kick out his wife without giving her anything despite having lived together for 20 years with 5 children. He claimed she didn’t have any right to ‘his property’ because she was just a house wife”.

Munyentwari adds that the judge decided to give value to all the unpaid work that the woman had done for 20 years and it became jurisprudence and has since been used by most judges in such cases.

Unpaid care work

Marie Médiatrice Umubyeyi, the Project Coordinator at Pro Femmes/Twese Hamwe, said most men don’t value the kind of work that women put in looking after the children and homes.

"As Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe, we wish people should live together after getting married legally. If not, they have to know how to fight for their rights, including how to show their contribution to the acquisition of properties they have together, especially for the sake of their children,” she said.

Emmanuel Ntagozera, an official in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) says the government has done its best to enact laws governing matrimonial regimes, donations and successions suitable for everyone.

"If there are still some gaps, it’s up to the government and civil society to sit together and see how to address this challenge,” he said.

Fidèle Bizimungu from Mbwira Ndumva Initiative, a local NGO helping vulnerable women says there should be a campaign to sensitize people to legalize their marriages to prevent unnecessary disputes.

Pro Femmes/Twese Hamwe last week launched a booklet which simplifies the matrimonial regimes, donations and successions law, in order to help society to be aware of it and limit domestic violence.

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