The Minister of State in Charge of Social Affairs and Social Protection Ignatienne Nyirarukundo will appear before the Senatorial Social Affairs, Human Rights and Petitions Commission on Thursday, November 12 where she is expected to among other things shed light on what the government based on to classify Rwandans in the revised Ubudehe categories.

Ubudehe is a long-standing cultural value of mutual assistance which was adopted by the government in 2000 as part of the strategies to address poverty reduction.

In the present context, it is the social stratification programme in which poor Rwandans are supported with social protection schemes.

In a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Augustin Iyamuremye, the Chairperson of the Commission Adrie Umuhire said that a number of locals had expressed frustrations over how they had been classified in the previous Ubudehe categories with some accusing the system of nepotism, corruption and unfairness.

Umuhire said that these accusations were raised again in Rwanda Governance Board Scorecard in 2018 and by a Transparency International report in 2019.

Topics of discussion

Umuhire pointed out that the Minister will be required to answer questions pertaining to what is being done to ensure that the issues mentioned above are fixed permanently.

"The Minister will explain the method used to classify the locals and what exactly these categories entail. She will also shed light on the strategy in place to ensure the frustrations raised by the masses in the previous categorisation process,” Umuhire said.

Nyirarukundo is also required to shed light on how Ubudehe helps locals to improve their poverty level and how they are supported to graduate from one level to another.

"She will also explain whether the government has any plans to continue to support particular categories, especially the poor ones,” the letter reads in part. 

There are five categories, represented by letters A, B, C, D, and E; with A consisting of households with the highest income, while E consists of those who are the most vulnerable in the society.

The categories and respective households:

Category A

It consists of the households that are considered well-off.

Those include families with an aggregated income of more than Rwf600,000 per month from various sources such as salaries or pension benefits, or other income-generating activities.

Also in this category are households with over 10 hectares of land in the rural area, and more than one-hectare plot in urban centres, or carry out livestock farming activities that enables them to get the above-mentioned income.

Category B

This category comprises households that earn between Rwf65,000 and Rwf600,000 monthly from similar sources as those cited above. For land, they should own between one and 10 hectares for rural areas, or between 300 square metres and one hectare in cities.

Category C

The group consists of households that make an aggregated income of between Rwf45,000 and Rwf65,000 per month. Their land ownership ranges from 0.5 hectare to one hectare in rural areas, or 100 square metres to 300 square metres in urban areas.

Category D

This category is for households that earn less than Rwf45,000 a month (casual workers). Their land is less than half a hectare in the rural areas, and less than 100 square metres in urban areas.

Category E

This is a special and completely new category comprising people out of the labour force as a result of age, major disabilities or incurable diseases, yet they do not own other assets or other sources of livelihoods.

Those found in this category include those who are heads of households and their spouses who are at least 65 years old and have no source of income to provide for the family.

These households will benefit from full state social protection, accessing everything from Vision 2020 Umurenge programme, subsidies for solar-based domestic electrical systems, community-based health insurance, fortified blended foods, and Girinka, among others.

Households in category A & B won’t benefit from social protection schemes, rather they are expected to be partners in community development through their investments and skills that create jobs and corporate social responsibility.