KABANDA'S MUSINGS : Noteri, noteri, oh noteri!

Noteri, the Kinyarwanda version of Notary, is a very important official in our lives. He/she is the official who has the legal authority to certify that documents are correctly signed or truthful or to make an oath in the legal world. In addition he/she certifies that the copies he/she has signed are true copies of originals which is the main reason many people search for the service of Noteri. Last week, my partners and I needed to certify some official documents; however we received the mail informing us of the requirement to certify the said documents late, so there was urgency on our part to beat the deadline. After some inquiries we were informed that the Noteri for Gasabo District was best organized. We drove to Kimihurura and by 9:00 am we were at his Notary’s Office. What makes Gasabo Notary a bit organized is that clients receive pieces of paper on which numbers have been scribbled by hand that same day indicating the order of arrival and therefore order of service. I requested for the piece of paper on which a number(s) had been written but the lady at the counter told me that nomero zashyize (all the numbers had been issued out) and I should come back the next day. I said I did not want nomero but the Notary to certify my documents and I was lucky the Gentleman was in office. The lady repeated that all the “numbers” had been issued and I should come back the next day. We have a deadline to beat, I pleaded, would she, please, accept our documents noting that it was still early in the morning and the next day was Saturday? “Nomero zashyize,” the lady repeated raising her voice possibly wondering why we could not understand the significance of issuing all pieces of paper by the Office of Noteri by 9:20 am. A friend called us and advised us to drive to RDB Headquarters on the road to Nyarutarama. “They are professionals,” he said. The Noteri had gone for a meeting and would be back in the afternoon. The person who was in the Office of Noteri informed us that the RDB Noteri served Investors only and unless we were investors we would not be served. I noted the word “Investor” carried some skin colour and foreign connotation. We informed our host that we were not investors but wondered why a Rwandan who is willing to pay for a service could not be served. “We would not get time to serve all those people,” we were told. We decided to go to Kicukiro District Headquarters hoping that Noteri would help us. At Kicukiro we were told that we could submit our documents and pick them the day after and since it was Friday, we could pick them on Monday. We observed that the lady Noteri was in office, she would surely serve us. We were told we could have our documents certified if we paid an extra fee for “express”. We could pay an extra fee to induce the government official to do her work for which she is paid to do. My colleague argued that that is official corruption; inducing a public servant to offer a service by paying extra money. It would be understandable if ours was a service that required the good Noteri to examine different source documents, compare different scenarios and make a judgment which might need some time. But ours was certifying the copies were true copies of originals. We decided to drive to Nyarugenge Noteri’s office. The queue zigzagged from one end to the other with many people standing and waiting for an opportunity to sit on the chairs that would be vacated by others as they advanced towards the cash office. The movement towards the cash office was painfully slow; we spent more than two hours waiting to pay for a service. We decided to pay extra money to induce a public servant to serve us in a scheme called “express”. We left the place with many unanswered questions; do people who supervise Noteris approve of the “express” system? What happened to the high sounding customer service campaign? Where did MINALOC’s taboos (Kirazira) go? If such kind of segregated treatment of Rwandans based on financial status takes place in the capital city, what happens in far flung places where the means of transport may be a challenge? Why should someone beg to get a service he/she has paid for? Do Noteris work for one month and get paid after the next one? Maybe we started from the wrong place; is it expected in Public Service for the Official to receive documents and think about the next day? Whatever the answer to the above questions I hope I do not go to Noteris’ again. Ends