Despite recent efforts by the judiciary to encourage people to opt for a conciliatory approach to dispute resolution instead of everything having to end up in court, the responsiveness is still very low.

Over the past four years, on average only 896 cases were resolved through Court Annexed Mediation (CAM), a small number compared to between 80,000 and 90,000 cases that were reported to courts every year during that period, on average.

CAM is a mechanism where judicial staff - specifically registrars and judges - encourage parties to use conciliation, after realising that it is the most appropriate way to resolve the particular dispute they have presented to the court.

It is mainly used to settle civil, commercial, labour and administrative cases.

In an effort to promote CAM, the 2018 Civil Procedure Law allowed judges to be mediators or assist the parties find a mediator, unlike the 2012 one which only allowed registrars to do that.

With this, more people are getting advised to opt for conciliation, though it is clear that many are taking the route of litigation.

In an interview with The New Times, Sam Rugege, the head of the advisory committee of professional mediators set up by the judiciary admitted that the number of people who opt for conciliation "is still very low” and rather static.

"In 2019 it was 959; in 2020 it went up slightly to 1000 then in 2021 it declined to 821 and now 804 (this year). We can do a lot better, especially given the success of Abunzi,” said Rugege, who is also a former Chief Justice.

Asked what he thinks about the argument that Rwandans are obsessed with litigation, he said:

"I have heard this claim but I think Rwandans have changed over time and are progressively more genuine in their pursuit of their rights. I think the problem is more of lack of awareness and not finding an easy definitive answer to their problems that do not go through Abunzi.”

However, he noted that surveys have shown that the majority of respondents prefer Abunzi to courts, and about 97% of disputes that go to Abunzi are resolved amicably.

"On other cases, they are not properly advised by their lawyers, many of whom, for selfish reasons, advise going to court as the sure way to resolve disputes,” he said.

Some of the key challenges hindering CAM, according to Rugege are: low levels of awareness about the benefits of mediation, resistance by many of the lawyers to opt for mediation, and the perception that mediation is an extra expense that is not necessary.

Talking about what can be done to promote mediation, he said there is need for a legislation that makes it mandatory for particular cases before they are filed to the courts, "so that before a court accepts to enroll your case you have to show that you tried mediation but it did not succeed.”

Harrison Mutabazi, the focal person of CAM in the judiciary told The New Times that conciliation is a good option not only because it saves the costs and time that would have been put into litigation, but enables the conflicting parties to find amicable solutions that often enable them to restore their relations – unlike in litigation.

In the coming years, the judiciary targets that at least 1,500 of the civil cases presented to the courts of law will be sorted through mediation.