Rwanda - Context and Land Governance

_{Terraced lands. Photo by Scott Gunn CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Rwanda is 26,338 km² in extent of which 24,670 km² is land cover. In 2022 the population was projected to be 13.6 million people, having grown by 2.44% from 2021². The country has the highest population density on mainland Africa³ and is the 23rd most densely populated country in the world, with a population density of 516 persons/km²⁴ .Over three quarters of the Rwandan population depend on agriculture as a primary livelihood source, which has placed enormous pressure on scarce land resources⁵.

Since the genocide in 1994, Rwanda has made a strong economic recovery and registered all land rights in the country. Within the donor community it is frequently lauded as a model developmental state. According to the World Development Indicators, Rwanda’s real GDP grew by 5.0 percent per year on average from 2000 to 2015.

Although agricultural output has increased substantially over the last two decades, the contribution of agriculture to GDP steadily decreased from 39% to 29%, while the service sector share increased from 51% to 57%, and the mining and construction share increased from 5% to 9%⁶. However critical research studies have questioned the sustainability of the Rwandan success story, raising concerns about “authoritarian developmentalism”. 

It has been argued that while “large agricultural investments in the fight against poverty have caused considerable economic growth in Rwanda in the past two decades, the rise of Rwanda cannot be sustainable if the tension between democracy and development is not addressed”⁷. Studies also reveal that in recent years “citizens’ satisfaction with agrarian and land policies has decreased strongly, even according to official data of the Rwandan Government”⁸.

Historical backdrop

Rwanda was established as a small polity in the 17th century and had developed into a socially stratified monarchical state by the late 19th century⁹. During the colonial period Rwanda, Burundi and parts of contemporary Tanzania fell under German control. Rwanda and present-day Burundi were incorporated into a German protectorate in 1884, and so-called German East Africa in 1890¹⁰. Following Germany’s defeat in World War 1, Rwanda-Urundi was ceded to the Belgians, who administered the territory in terms of a League of Nations mandate¹¹. Both territories comprise two main communities – a Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority.

Rwanda experienced the protracted impacts of Belgian social engineering. This set out to ethnicise existing social and economic divisions between those identified as Hutu and those as Tutsis¹² .Tutsis exercised more economic power because a cattle-based economy was richer than one dominated by cropping alone¹³.The ubuhake system reflected patron client relationships between wealthy cattle owners and those without livestock.  
 

^{Cattle have played an important role in Rwandan society. Photo by Iksriv CC BY-SA 2.0}

It has been argued that Hutu and Tutsi reflected social relations “which were not fixed categories but fluid ones, varying through time and location depending on such factors as wealth, military prowess, family control over a precious commodity, or occupation of prestigious social position”¹⁴ .Precolonial practices of kwihutura and gucupira, “reflected social mobilities in which Hutu could become Tutsi, and, where Tutsi could become Hutu, ordinarily by wealth or status being accrued or lost, respectively”¹⁵.
Existing class distinctions of relative wealth, influence and power were recast as fundamental ethnic divisions by the Belgian colonial administration. The Belgian administration initially enforced a system of indirect rule by actively promoting elements within the Tutsi minority, who were further entrenched as a ruling elite through the exercise of governance powers, privileged access to land, economic opportunities, education and state jobs. 

Narratives of ethnic difference were further cemented, when in 1933 the Belgians required the population to carry an identity card which specified their ethnicity according to criteria determined by the Belgian administration. This served to further ethnicise social differentiation which would become a key driver of bitter conflict in the region, which initially was directed against ruling elites. 

^{German and Belgian rule institutionalised social difference and inequality. Archival Photo sourced from Bihibindi News}

The 1950’s saw the development of a Hutu political movement and the publication of the Bahutu Manifesto, in which Hutu intellectuals challenged what they characterised as the feudal nature of the Tutsi dominated monarchical state and the powers exercised by traditional authorities. In the late 1950’s, just a few years prior to Rwandan independence, Belgian policy underwent a polar shift in favour of the Hutu majority. 

Rwanda obtained independence from Belgium in 1962, following an intense period of social conflict lead by elements of the Hutu majority. This conflict has been described as a Hutu peasant rebellion directed against the Tutsi dominated monarchy and traditional authorities. It lasted between 1959 and 1963. Some 20,000 Tutsi were killed and between 300,000 and 500,000 people were forced into exile¹⁶ .The land of the Tutsi refugees was redistributed to Hutu by leaders who sought to consolidate their power base¹⁷. Following the Tutsi expulsion, regional tensions developed between Hutu groupings in the north and south of the country.

The Hutu rebellion would precipitate subsequent cycles of armed incursions and repressive counter violence. In 1963 an estimated two thousand Tutsi fighters launched an unsuccessful attack from Burundi. This prompted state sponsored counter violence in Rwanda resulting in massacres and killings “on a massive scale” of those identified as Tutsi who had remained within the country.  A further 15,000 people were reported killed and 100,000 displaced¹⁸.

Rwanda had become politically and economically isolated before a military coup led by Juvenal Habyarimana, resulted in a transfer of power from the southern Hutu to an emergent northern Hutu elite. The coup leadership advocated greater economic self-sufficiency - a position which subsequently found favour with the international development community. As Rwanda attracted development aid, donors sought to emphasise Rwanda’s emerging political stability and what they perceived as the increasing “cultural and social cohesion of its people”¹⁹ .

During the 1980’s and early 1990’s Rwanda faced a range of economic and ecological shocks. The commodity price of coffee, which accounted for the bulk of Rwanda’s export earnings fell by 50%. 
 

^{In the 1980's the price of coffee fell by half. Photo by Iksriv CC BY-SA 2.0}

At the same time Rwanda experienced protracted droughts. The social impacts of the economic downturn were accentuated by Rwanda’s forced acceptance of a strict economic structural adjustment programme. Hard times were experienced by the poor, while elites sought to concentrate wealth and power, exacerbating existing social fragilities and deepening inequality. 

Rwandan historian Prof Emmanuel Ntezimana wrote of this period that:Among the elite and people of note, the goal of life, the value of the individual and the quality of society seem henceforth reduced to the search and fantastic accumulation of goods and material comforts, at the same time delicious and poisonous.In 1988 Rwanda experienced an influx of 50,000 Hutu refugees from neighbouring Burundi, following conflict there. This contributed to rising social tensions in Rwanda and the refugee diaspora. In October 1990 exiled Rwandan Tutsis based in Uganda, who had formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), launched armed incursions from the south of Uganda. This conflict rapidly escalated into a bitter civil war. 

In response to the actions of the RPF, the Habyarimana regime declared a state of emergency and arrested many Tutsis, who had remained living inside the country. Meanwhile Rwandan radio stations and print media distributed extreme ethno-nationalist hate media, including the notorious Hutu Ten Commandments²⁰. A grouping of Hutu extremists began to provide military training to unemployed youths, who formed militias – one of which became known as the Interahamwe.
In March 1993, after three years of fighting and significant advances by the RPF, President Habyarimana signed a ceasefire agreement with the RPF in Arusha, Tanzania. This agreement was to preface negotiations which sought to end the civil war. Members of the RPF were scheduled to assume positions in a broad-based transitional government (BBTG) and in the national army. However, despite the deployment of UN peacekeepers this ceasefire did not hold.

On the 6th April 1994 a plane carrying both the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was brought down by rocket fire, killing all those on board. Responsibility for the attack remains in dispute. Some present the case that it was the RPF which shot down the plane ²¹.Others have argued that it was Hutu extremists opposed to any political accommodation with the RPF ²².

“Although radicalization and violence began to grow long before, the crash of the presidential plane was a critical threshold marking the transition to genocide”²³ . While the slaughter began following the downing of the plane, there is evidence ²⁴ which indicates that the genocide had been planned months in advance.

Casualty estimates vary, but the majority indicate that some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were massacred in just 100 days. The forces of the RPF continued to advance even as the genocide proceeded before finally defeating the Hutu led government in July 1994.
 

^{The Kigali genocide memorial. Photo: Kigalicity.org}

 A combination of factors, including reprisal killings following the RPF military victory²⁵ saw more than a million Hutus and associated militia forces left Rwanda in a mass exodus into the DRC and across the Great Lakes Region (GLR). The resultant proliferation of armed militia in countries of the GLR has contributed to the persistence of conflict and political uncertainty, particularly in the DRC²⁶ .

After taking power the RPF first formed a provisional government, appointing a Hutu President. However, Paul Kagame, a Tutsi exile from Uganda and RPF military leader was appointed Vice President and Minister of Defence and was commonly regarded as the de facto leader. Kagame subsequently assumed the Presidency in 2000 and has remained in power ever since.

Post conflict recovery

As a consequence of conflict and genocide “the infrastructure, the economy, the political structure, the cultural setup, the whole life of the country was destroyed”²⁷. This also reshaped Rwanda’s demographic profile. In the post-conflict period 70% of the population was female and 34% of households were female headed ²⁸.

A new Constitution was approved in 2003. This advanced political representation of women reserving at least 30% of seats at all decision-making levels²⁹. The Constitution limited the number of terms which could be served by the President. However, this clause was amended following a referendum in 2015, allowing the President to continue to stand for re-election.

Rwanda’s violent and troubled past has had significant impacts on the economy and major implications for land rights. The 1994 genocide led to an immediate 58% drop in GDP30 Since then, Rwanda’s economic recovery gained it a reputation as a ‘development success story’³¹ amongst many northern donors, but this has sparked a highly polarised debate amongst academics and civil society organisations. Economically, Rwanda has performed strongly with increasing growth rates. GDP growth stood at 10% in 2021 and is projected at 6.9% and 7.9% in 2022 and 2023, following an economic contraction due to the pandemic.³² The country’s clamp down on corruption and ‘fast track reforms’ have seen income poverty decline sharply. Some analysts have argued that Rwanda models a new form of an African developmental state³³. However, critics characterise Rwanda of a ‘market-oriented authoritarianism’,³⁴ observing that:In Rwanda, 15 years of post-genocide peace were built through security, economic recovery and state building, but without democratisation. The result was a repressive peace³⁵.Evidence of authoritarian rule includes “the oppression of dissidents, human rights violations, the monopoly of power by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) elites (particularly former military officers), and the technology of disinformation”³⁶.

In post-conflict Rwanda, there were longstanding and complex land claims resulting from forced displacements and state legitimized secondary occupation. It has been observed that:When primary displacement occurs during the conflict or post-conflict period, it results in illegal land occupation, secondary occupation of abandoned properties, numerous disputes and contradictory claims over land³⁷ .There was no functioning institution responsible for land administration in the 1994-1997 period, as in the immediate post-genocide emergency, regional and international actors sought to mitigate the immediate impacts of the humanitarian crisis. 

 
“The refugee inflows, coupled with the destruction of houses and infrastructure during the war and genocide meant that by 1997 Rwanda faced an acute housing crisis. The government response included opening up public lands for resettlement, instructing people to share farmlands”³⁸ .

The Imidugudu villagisation programme originates with the Arusha Accords of 1993, which explicitly stated that refugees shall be resettled in sites modelled according to the ‘village, grouped type of settlement to encourage the establishment of development centres in the rural areas and break with the traditional scattered housing’³⁹ .

However, the villagisation policy approved in 1996 sought to resettle all rural dwellers in Rwanda into Imigudugu. This policy was adopted despite the poor record of villagisation programmes across Africa⁴⁰ .and became Rwanda’s “guiding spatial planning policy”⁴¹.  While this policy may have improved security, it has been involuntary and enforced through state coercion, which has impacted on people’s access to land, housing and services. State policies from this time included the outlawing of thatched roofs on people’s houses⁴² .
 

_{Rwandan landscape Photo Jon Evans CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Land policy and legislation

The years 1997 – 2003 have been characterised as the early recovery period, with a focus on the development of a legal and policy framework to address land issues. During this period there were multiple conflicting claims over rights in land. In most instances these could only be practically addressed through local structures to negotiate and mediate disputes. These included the decentralised abunzi system popularised by the Rwandan government in the post 2000 era⁴³  .

Land policy in Rwanda is reported to have been strongly influenced by a consultant report commissioned in 1997 with FAO support. This is reported to have promoted villagisation as a measure to increase agricultural productivity and advance the commercialisation of agriculture ⁴⁴.

Land policy in Rwanda is “inspired by De Soto’s theory that individual land ownership is the key to reducing poverty”⁴⁵ . The policy states that: “the overall objective of the national land policy is to establish a land tenure system that guarantees tenure security for all Rwandans and give guidance to the necessary land reforms with a view to good management and rational use of national land resources”. The policy emphasises that the purpose of ensuring tenure security is to promote investments in land and promote the consolidation of plots to “bring about economically viable production” ⁴⁶.  Subsequent agricultural policy has sought to intensify production and shift it towards the sale of cash crops, as opposed to cropping for consumption.With respect to the law, Article 29 of the Rwandan Constitution of 2003 (as subsequently amended) recognizes the rights of the individual to private property ownership. The Constitution provides that property can be expropriated for the public interest, but only upon payment of fair and prior compensation to the landowner. The period since 2003 has been regarded as the reconstruction period ⁴⁷ .One of the key programmes of this era was the Land Tenure Regularisation Programme (LTRP, 2008-2014) which is discussed further below.

In 2004, a national land policy was adopted, followed by promulgation of the Organic Land Law (OLL) in 2005⁴⁸ .In article 34, the OLL reiterates that “private property is inviolable” and shall not be encroached upon, except when it is required in the public interest. Rwanda has an expropriation law that determines procedures for acquisition of land in the public interest ⁴⁹ .

Most importantly Article 30 of the OLL made the registration of land rights obligatory. The land reform programme launched in 2007 aimed to register 7.9 million titles within three years (2010-2013)⁵⁰ .In actual practice, 10.3 million parcels were eventually registered in just under six years ⁵¹.

The OLL was subsequently replaced by the Law Governing Land in Rwanda in 2013 ⁵² .The legal framework provides that all land in Rwanda is ultimately the property of Government, to be managed for the good of the nation. Through new land policy, customary land holdings were recognized, but they were to be converted into 99-year leaseholds from the State through the LTRP⁵³ .

^{Land rights holders display certificates. Photo ARC news CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

While registration of land rights has been held up by many as an unparalleled success story, contemporary qualitative research studies reveal that “land conflicts are still widespread and often concern parcels that have already been registered” ⁵⁴ .Concerns have been expressed about the ways in which the land register enables the authorities to exercise interventionist governance over land rights, farming systems and land uses. Research indicates that “most farmers felt that tenure security is not so much about documented property rights (i.e. provision of leases or deeds) but about security from land disputes within families, or with neighbours ⁵⁵.In 2013, only 45% of respondents countrywide had collected their final land certificate once they became aware of the titling fees and taxes to be levied upon collection ⁵⁶ .

Land tenure classifications

Systems of land tenure in Rwanda have changed substantially across the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods.

In the pre-colonial era, two systems of land ownership co-existed in different regions of Rwanda. One was a lineage-based rights system primarily practiced in the north and northwest of the country, in which principal authority was held by a chief who recognised the land use rights of those who cleared the land. In central and southern Rwanda grazing rights were granted to families by the king⁵⁷ .

During the Belgian colonial period, administrators introduced the Codes and Laws of Rwanda enabling titling ⁵⁸ .However this titling model did nothing to protect the rights of local indigenous Rwandans. Rather it recognised the interests of religious institutions, colonial companies and trading centres. This formal tenure existed alongside customary tenure systems in their different variations. The Belgians also introduced far-reaching managerial changes to customary land administration, which according to one analyst “destroyed the traditional leadership system”⁵⁹ .

The dual tenure system continued for several years in post-colonial Rwanda. Property titles were mostly restricted to the urban areas and accessible only to a tiny elite, while customary tenure remained the norm in rural areas⁶⁰ . However, in 2004 the land tenure system changed when Rwanda embarked on country wide land reform.

Rights of married women enjoy substantial protection under Rwandan land laws, ⁶¹which is examined in more depth below. Inheritance law also changed to enable sons and daughters to enjoy equal inheritance rights.Today the country is characterised as having a well-developed and sophisticated land administration system. Many land transactions, including the buying and selling of property have been digitized. Some land services can be accessed online. Land law in Rwanda regulates how land can be acquired and transacted; whether it is allocated by the state, acquired through inheritance, or via transactions on the land market ⁶² .

However, despite the formal legal and land administration system, informal transactions continue to take place ⁶³ . Disputes continue to shadow land sales as the only transactions that are regarded as legally valid are those which are executed in front of a notary. This can serve to invalidate informal sales. 

In Rwanda, land is accessible for both Rwandans and foreigners, and the land can be acquired from a private person or the State. Freehold title is only granted to Rwandans, while land can be leased to both Rwandans and foreigners. Land rights may be transferred between persons through succession, gift, inheritance, rent, sale, sublease, exchange, servitude, mortgage or any other transaction, in conformity with the conditions and methods provided by laws and regulations ⁶⁴ .predominant mode of land acquisition is reported to be through sale, followed by umunani or inheritance⁶⁵ .

Following the registration of land holdings in Rwanda, two types of land tenure remain - leasehold and freehold. The land law defines leasehold as a long-term contract between the State and a person to exploit land in return for a periodic agreed fee payment. Freehold tenure grants full and indefinite rights over the land ⁶⁶  .All Rwandans can be granted freehold title on land that is reserved for residential, commercial, social, cultural or scientific purposes. However, this freehold can only be awarded where the land has been developed and title in land may not exceed 5 hectares in extent ⁶⁷.

Land investments and acquisitions

The Rwandan government espouses an explicit modernisation agenda ⁶⁸ .The law governing land in Rwanda clarifies that the acquisition of land for investment shall be based on a business plan approved by a competent authority, in accordance with the importance and value of the investment.

According to USAID, the land registration process in Rwanda has resulted in increased investment in land, more specifically in cultivating annual crops and developing new residential structures and establishing farm and business structures ⁶⁹ .However, some of the agricultural reforms have also been criticised as top down “representing the ambitions of a ruling elite of highly educated urbanites” ⁷⁰ who have lost touch with the lives and livelihoods of the majority of Rwandans living in the countryside.

Rwanda has been presented as a New Green Revolution AGRA success story. However, while Rwanda’s Crop Intensification Program (CIP) which focused on increasing yields of maize, wheat, cassava, beans, Irish potatoes, and rice⁷¹ may have increased yields on selected crops, there remain serious concerns about the sustainability of the farming systems and economic models which underpin this. While yields have been improved for maize, this is reported to “come at the expense of more comprehensive food crop productivity” ⁷² .Recent evaluations of the AGRA programme have been highly critical of its impacts 73.

Likewise, the policies on Land Use Consolidation (LUC), and restrictions on land subdivision through Article 30 of the 2013 Land Law “have been linked to reduced decision-making authority over land and, in some cases, decreased tenure security for participating landowners”⁷⁴ .Overall, Rwanda’s modernisation pathway has involved significant re-configuration of the agricultural sector which “seeks to facilitate increased large-scale land acquisition by foreign corporations, as well as expansion of state-imposed contract farming involving coalitions of foreign and domestic capital; and market-based accumulation of land by wealthy and politically connected elites (land concentration)”⁷⁵ .Given the intensity of land use in Rwanda, where the average landholding is less than a hectare, there is little opportunity to allocate ‘unused’ or ‘vacant’ land to investors. In this setting the state and private actors are reported to access land through “taking control over land-use and rural labour, rather than by directly grabbing land”⁷⁶ .

In 2017 the country was recognised as having streamlined property registration. This included a tracking procedure for commercial property transfers and establishing a land administration services complaints mechanism. Rwanda also regularly publishes statistics on property transfers⁷⁷ . The country has set up an electronic portal that combines company registration, information on tax obligations and duties and value added tax registration designed to save investors time and limiting unnecessary interactions with government officials⁷⁸.

Mining in Rwanda has been built around a growing domestic mining sector, coupled with periods when mining exports were swelled by profits derived from regional instability. In 2012, a UN report alleged that traders in Rwanda with links to the Rwandan military in the DRC had profited from sales of conflict minerals – tin, tungsten and tantalum⁷⁹ .Linkages between resource related conflicts and human rights violations saw the global introduction of conflict mineral regulations in 2010⁸⁰ .

From 2000 Rwanda sought to modernise and regulate the domestic mining sector. Mining licenses increased from 50 in 2008 to close on 800 by 2014 ⁸¹ .Two large firms are reported to dominate large scale commercial mining activities. Today Rwanda is reported to be one of the world’s largest producers of tin, tantalum, and tungsten (3Ts) and also exports gold and gemstones. Small scale mining still dominates and is reported to account for 80% of the country’s mineral output⁸² .

^{Rwandan artisanal miners forging mining tools. Photo by Fairphone CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Land use trends

The majority of Rwanda is rural and over 70% of the country’s total land surface is exploited for agriculture and livestock activities⁸³. The total arable land is about 52% (1.4 million hectares) of the total surface area of the country and another 17% (0.47 million hectares) are under permanent pasture⁸⁴ .Landholdings are very small with more than 60% of households cultivating less than 0.7 hectares, 50% cultivating less than 0.5 hectares, and more than 25% cultivating less than 0.2 ha. This constraint is aggravated by the fact that most farms have multiple, scattered plots, many of them tiny. In addition to the small size of farms and plots, crops are grown on steep slopes up to and above 55%⁸⁵.

Since the registration of all land through the Land Tenure Regularization Programme, land values are reported to have increased in urban areas, where there has been a shift from land used for farming to land used for settlement⁸⁶.

Women’s land rights

“Rwanda’s declared policy is to eliminate inequalities between men and women” ⁸⁷ .Rwanda has succeeded in registering all legal owners of land and has required spouses to be registered as co-owners of joint property ⁸⁸ .However this is not without qualification. Article 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda recognises “civil monogamous marriage between a man and a woman” as the only legally recognized form of marriage. The property rights of women in relationships which are not legally formalised remain precarious.

Article 4 of the Land Law (2013) clearly prescribes the respect and recognition of land rights for men, women, and heirs without any discrimination based on sex. It states that “All forms of discrimination, that are based on sex or origin, in relation to access to land and the enjoyment of real rights shall be prohibited.” However, it continues to say that “The right to land for a man and a woman lawfully married shall depend on the matrimonial regime they opted for.” 
 

^{Rwandan law protects the property rights of married women. Photo by UN photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

The protection and recognition of widows and female children’s rights over land are stipulated in the national constitution and elaborated in the land policy and related legislation. The LTRP gave women ⁸⁹ /wives rights to be registered on land certificates with the equal rights to men/their husbands ⁹⁰. This means that land rights cannot be transferred without the prior consent of the wife and male and female heirs within in the family, depending on the marital regime. This consent is provided by submitting a signed form requesting the land bureau office to transfer rights, while also specifying reasons for transfer. Despite the benefits of this programme, there are still different challenges associated with the land tenure regularisation provisions, in particular for women in Rwanda. These include societal perspectives which continue to subordinate women as a consequence of persisting patriarchal attitudes,⁹¹ together with other obstacles to the implementation of legal provisions.

These include instances where a woman is not legally married, but is living together with a man with whom she has children. During land registration, some unmarried women managed to register themselves on the parcel and obtain land rights. However, there are many instances where men prohibited these women from being registered on the land and, thus, the land was registered in the name of the man as the sole rights holder. Where women are in a de facto union, they have no legal rights to claim any portion of the land registered in their partner’s name.

As field research ⁹² shows, for the full enforcement of land rights and the promotion of tenure security for women, widows and female orphans, there is a continuing need to empower women and female descendants and make them more capable of defending themselves against the practices of land grabbing and/or land deprivation. 

Urban tenure issues

Major processes of urban redevelopment have been initiated in the capital city Kigali. A series of urban development master plans were developed and adopted between 2008- 2013. Much of the focus has been on the clearance of informal settlements. In the process the state has acquired large tracts of land through expropriation in the public interest. Rwanda does not have a legally binding framework for resettling persons displaced by expropriation. Many expropriated households are reported to prefer receiving the cash instead ⁹³.
 

^{Kigali suburb. Photo from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Expropriation is preceded by land valuation, where the market related value of the land and any improvements is determined. Rwandan Expropriation Law lists the reasons for which land can be expropriated in the public interest such as the construction of roads, public schools, hospitals, water pipes, etc). A USAID briefing paper has cautioned that if “activities to implement land use and development master plans” are included in this list, this could leave room for private investment projects to be considered as being in the public interest ⁹⁴ .If approved, this could result in small land holders and informal occupiers being expropriated to the benefit of private investors, with compensation calculated based on the market value of the raw land. 

Where land is expropriated, there have been reports of delays in the award of compensation, despite the law requiring that this be paid within 120 days from the date that the amount of compensation was determined ⁹⁵ .However,delays in payment are reported to have been decreasing in recent years and increasingly compensation is paid within the allocated time. 

From a spatial justice perspective there are concerns that expropriation of people in informal settlements inevitably displaces them to the urban periphery, as despite compensation being paid it is insufficient to afford housing in the planned new developments ⁹⁶ .There have also been concerns that cash compensation has been consumed, rather than being reinvested. More recently in response to this problem, Kigali City Council has piloted the provision of in-kind compensation through the resettlement of informal settlement dwellers in planned urban neighbourhoods. 

Community land rights

As discussed above, the land rights of Rwandan citizens have been registered, which provides legal protection for their property. However, the conversion from customary tenure to what is state leasehold has converted customary owners into tenants who are liable for rents and taxes. Case study research in one district has revealed that since the establishment of the cadastre in 2012, state revenues from property taxation had increased 30 times by 2016 ⁹⁷.

Community land rights have been impacted by other policies pursued by the Rwandan government. Compulsory villagisation and land use consolidation are probably the most significant of these. 

Timeline – milestones in land governance

1884
Rwanda-Urundi amalgamated under German colonial control

1920
Rwanda-Urundi administered by Belgium. Social policy ethnicises difference and actively favours Tutsi minority

1959
Belgian policy shifts to favour Hutu majority. A Hutu revolution starts. The transition from Tutsi to Hutu rule was not peaceful. From 1959 to 1961 some 20,000 Tutsi were killed, and political violence forced some 300,000 Tutsi into exile, mostly in neighbouring states ahead of independence.

1961
Rwanda becomes a republic and expels the monarch Mwami Kigeri into exile

1962
Rwanda obtains independence under the leadership of Grégoire Kayibanda, and the Party for Hutu Emancipation

1963
Armed exile groups attack Kigali. The government fights back resulting in mass killings

1973
Inter Hutu rivalries emerge between North and South. Maj. Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana, a Northerner replaces President Kayibanda in a coup.

1988
Influx of refugees following conflict in Burundi

1990- The Rwandan Patriotic Front led by Tutsi exiles invades Rwanda from Uganda

1993-Arusha agreement seeks to end the fighting, presages multiparty government and the launch of imidugudu villagisation plan

1994
A plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidents was shot down over Kigali, killing everyone on board. The moderate Hutu prime Minister was assassinated the following day 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu killed in 100 days in the Rwandan genocide RPF overcomes Hutu extremists and establishes an interim government. Retaliatory violence adds to the death toll and precipitates mass exodus of an estimated 2 million people from Rwanda 

The RPF victory enables the return of those previously exiled.

1996-1997
Rwandan and Ugandan troops intervene in DRC leading to the overthrow of President Mobutu by Laurent Kabila

1998-2000
Rwandan military involvement in the export of conflict minerals from the DRC

2000
Restructuring of mining industry within Rwanda

2003
New constitution promulgated. Launch of post conflict reconstruction

2004
National land policy finalised

2005
Organic Land Law promulgated

2008-2014
Land tenure regularisation programme registers all land parcels in Rwanda

2015
Changes to the Rwandan constitution approved and the promulgation of Law Governing Land in Rwanda replaces 2005 Land Law

2017
Rwanda streamlines property and business registration

Where to go next?

There is an enormous and diverse literature on Rwanda reflecting widely different perspectives on the post genocide transition.  For those seriously interested in understanding  Rwandan history and the  context shaping  the Rwandan genocide and the issues shaping post conflict reconstruction, the wide-ranging work of René Lamarchand provides important insights. The critical research of An Ansoms and her collaborators covers a wide range of subjects relating to land, the politics of aid, agriculture, gender relations, poverty  and livelihoods in Rwanda. This reveals much of “what the eye cannot see” – at least at first glance. The works of Takeuchi and  Marara who publish both together and individually, provides valuable analysis of land law reform  and ‘developmentalism’ in Rwanda. A number of PhD theses also enlarge understanding of issues in Rwanda. There are also numerous reports published by USAID, DFID and the World Bank which focus on the tenure regularisation process. See the reference list for more information and search on the Land Portal for source documents.