A renowned Kenyan lawyer, public speaker and pan-Africanist, Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, last week called for adaptation of justice systems to local African contexts, warning that imported legal regimes were not working for the continent. He was speaking at a symposium on peace, security and justice at the Rwanda National Police’s Police Senior Command and Staff Course students in Musanze District. He called for a rethink of the existing legal and governance systems in Africa, which he said were largely inherited from colonialists and were generally far removed from the cultural contexts of African countries. First off, there was no better place to make the appeal. The post-Genocide Rwandan government has actively promoted homegrown solutions in an effort to deal with enormous challenges the country faced in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and to put the country on a firm development trajectory. From justice to governance to socioeconomic development, the government devised concepts and models, largely inspired by the country’s traditions, and deployed them to help address some of the unprecedented problems it was up against. Indeed, concepts like Gacaca, Abunzi, Umuganda and Ubudehe, as well as platforms like the Consultative Forum for Political Organisations, were conceived as a way to respond to the most pressing challenges the country faced. And, while each of these initiatives has been unfairly criticised by naysayers, they have delivered results – impressive ones at that. This is why, as a people, we should continue to deploy such unconventional initiatives, even for the long-term. If this approach worked for us in the most challenging of circumstances, there is no reason to doubt it will deliver results under somewhat normal circumstances. For instance, there is a need for Rwandans to embrace mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, with a view to not only help ease the backlog of cases in courts but also avoid expensive and time-consuming litigations. But the government needs to be more deliberate in how it promotes professional mediation, making sure that everyone appreciates its effectiveness and actively encourage its use across the board. In addition, there is a need to fully integrate the practice into the mainstream legal system by laying out clear standard operating procedure and actively recruiting more professional mediators.
