MUHANGA – The president of Muhanga Intermediate Court, has appealed to local leaders to collaborate with judicial officials in a bid to minimise legal disputes in the community.

Speaking during the opening of the judiciary’s accountability week on Monday, Chantal Werabe said that failure by local leaders to resolve petty cases was partly responsible for the court’s backlog of cases.

"We need the support of local leaders to educate residents so as to reduce the increase in the number of crimes and disputes being taken to our courts,” she said.
"Most cases result from minor disputes which can be resolved.”

Werabe noted that Muhanga leads in defilement cases, while Ruhango and Kamonyi have high rates of theft and murder cases respectively.

Genocide ideology cases have been evident in all the three districts, she added.

The court officials revealed that the numbers of cases have increased in the past four years, but there are efforts to clear all pending cases.

At least 30 cases are handled by three judges in a month since the 2004 reforms, according to the officials.

District officials said there is need to increase community policing while more efforts are needed to train mediators and residents on various laws and conflict resolution mechanism in order to cut down the number of cases handled by mainstream courts.

Ends