As part of its proactive approach to solve the outstanding backlog of unsolved land disputes in the districts under its jurisdiction, Kigali City Council (KCC) on Wednesday publicly quizzed authorities of Kicukiro District on several cases it had failed to solve.

This was the first time KCC is bringing together people with unsolved land problems and district authorities publically to seek solutions to their problems.

It was established during the meeting that poor customer care was the major reason for the accumulated land disputes in the city.

"We found performance very low---there was a general lack of follow-up and proper coordination of land cases, all of which is responsible for the huge number of unsolved land cases in districts; we had to intervene,” said Aisha Kirabo Kakira, the City Mayor.

She stressed that delay in delivery of services disregards the Client Charter established by KCC which stresses that issuing land certificates does not exceed 30 days. The claimant is also supposed to get a feedback within 3 days.  

"Management has been very slow and the charter’s regulations have not been promptly followed,” said the Mayor.

"We started with Kicukiro district, but the process will extend to other districts Gasabo being next.”

During the widely attended session, Kirabo mediated about seven cases between residents and Kicukiro district management, and many of these were instantly solved attracting applauses from the locals.

Among the cases solved was that of Jacques Rusirare a local entrepreneur who had earlier bought 50 plots of land from Kicukiro district, but in a strange twist of events, was only given 40.

After quizzing the district authorities, the Mayor and Kicukiro management agreed that Rusirare be given his remaining 10 plots.

"I am really happy that finally my case has been understood and I am getting my land,” Rusirare said.

The other outstanding cases were people whose land had been grabbed by the district and others who have not been compensated after being expropriated.

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