Expropriation and compensation: the Investment Code guarantee, Law N° 32/2015 on expropriation in the public interest, who decides, valuation at market value plus 5%, objections and court challenges, the 120-day payment rule, and the 2024 rules on requisition and termination of land contracts for non-use

The guarantee: inviolable property and prior fair compensation

Rwandan law protects property against arbitrary taking at three levels. Article 10 of Law N° 006/2021 of 05/02/2021 on Investment Promotion and Facilitation (the Investment Code) gives an investor the right to own private property individually or collectively, declares that property inviolable, provides that an investment or a right over property forming part of it cannot be seized or confiscated except where the law provides, and states that expropriation in the public interest is taken after the investor is given fair compensation in accordance with relevant laws. Article 41 of Law N° 27/2021 of 10/06/2021 governing land (the Land Law) gives holders full enjoyment of their land and protects them from dispossession other than by expropriation in the public interest with prior fair compensation. Law N° 32/2015 of 11/06/2015 relating to expropriation in the public interest, published in Official Gazette n° 35 of 31/08/2015 and replacing Law n° 18/2007, sets the procedure and the figures.

The guarantee is not a promise that land will never be taken. The Investment Code permits expropriation with compensation; claims that it forbids expropriation of investors' property, which appear in some secondary sources, are wrong. What the law guarantees is a process: a public interest purpose, a decision by a competent organ, a market valuation, a right to contest and payment before relocation. A foreign investor whose structure qualifies may also have treaty protection, discussed in Investor-State disputes and treaty protection.

What counts as public interest

Article 3 reserves the power to order expropriation to the Government and limits it to the public interest with prior and fair compensation. Article 5 lists 22 activities of public interest, among them roads and railways, water pipes, reservoirs, dams and treatment plants, electric, gas, oil and communication lines, airports, car parks, stations and ports, protected and historical areas, security facilities, hospitals, schools, Government buildings, markets, cemeteries, genocide memorial sites, activities to implement land use and development master plans, and minerals and other natural resources in the public domain. The Minister in charge of lands may add other activities by Order.

The master plan category deserves attention because it can reach private projects that implement a plan. Article 6 requires the initiator of such a project first to negotiate with the owners of the affected assets; only if negotiation fails are the expropriation formalities followed, on the request of the expropriator and the initiator, and the price is paid by the initiator before any work starts. Minerals are a separate case. All rights of ownership and control of minerals and quarry products in, under or upon any land in Rwanda are vested in the State under Article 3(a) of Law N° 072/2024 of 26/06/2024 on mining and quarry operations (the Mining Law), notwithstanding private ownership of the land, and Article 43 of the Land Law vests natural resources generally in the State. Under Article 4 of the Mining Law, a mining licence holder must give the land owner or lawful occupier fair compensation before mining operations start, after which the land acquired is registered to the State, while an exploration or quarry licence holder concludes a written lease with the owner and hands the land back when operations end. The Mining Law sets no valuation method of its own (Minerals chapter). Article 47 of the Land Law adds that a holder of land rights may not obstruct underground or overhead works of public interest, such as cables and pipes, but receives fair compensation for any loss they cause.

Who decides, and how the decision is made public

The organ that determines the project depends on its reach (Article 7): the District Executive Committee for one District, the City of Kigali Executive Committee for several Districts within Kigali, and the relevant Ministry for several Districts or a national project. A supervision committee at the same level examines the request (Article 8). The application must contain the nature and public purpose of the project, the master plan of the land with maps, the assets and the list of right holders, an environmental document, proof that compensation funds are available, a note on the suitability of the land, minutes showing that the population was sensitised, and a study of the consequences for those to be expropriated (Article 10).

The committee assesses relevance within 30 days of the request and holds a consultative meeting with the local population (Article 11), then sends its written decision within 15 days of that meeting (Article 14). The approving organ under Article 9 is the District Council, the Council of the City of Kigali, the Ministry in charge of land by Ministerial Order for projects covering more than one District, or the Prime Minister's Office by Prime Minister's Order for national security and sovereignty projects, and it approves within 15 days of the committee's decision (Article 15). A recent example is Ministerial Order no 006/MoE/25 of 03/10/2025, approved by the Cabinet on 15 September 2025 and published in the Official Gazette n° Special of 07/10/2025, approving expropriation for a dam and water supply system from Gicumbi District to Nyagatare District.

Within 15 days of approval the decision is announced on a radio station and in a newspaper with wide coverage, and the list of registered right holders and property is posted at the offices of the City of Kigali, the District, the Sector and the Cell (Article 16). From publication the owner may not start new long-term activities on the land; anything built afterwards is not compensated (Article 17).

Challenging the decision and the list

A person affected may ask the organ directly above the one that decided to review the decision within 30 days of publication, stating the grounds in writing; that organ must answer in writing, with reasons, within 30 days (Article 18). The applicant for expropriation has the mirror right if the project is refused: 15 days to apply for review, 30 days for the decision (Article 19). Within 15 days of publication of the initial list of persons to be expropriated, anyone affected may ask the organ that drew it up to review it, and that organ decides within 7 working days (Article 20); the Mayor or the Minister then approves the final list within 7 working days, and it becomes the basis of the inventory (Article 21). An investor whose name, plot or buildings are missing or wrongly described must act within these windows, because the list drives the valuation.

Valuation: market value plus 5%

Values are anchored in an annual list of land values and prices for property on land, established by the Institute of Real Property Valuers in Rwanda (IRPV) at prevailing market rates, approved by the regulatory council for real property valuation and published in the Official Gazette (Article 22). Once expropriation is decided, the expropriator appoints IRPV-certified valuers (Article 23) and announces the start date of measurement and inventory at the Cell office and on radio and in the press (Article 24). The valuation is done in the presence of the owners or their lawful representatives and local officials, and minutes record who attended (Article 25).

The owner must produce its land title and evidence of ownership of the property on the land, with civil status and matrimonial regime documents for an individual; a person who was dispossessed, occupies unlawfully or developed activities prohibited by law receives nothing (Article 26). Three items are valued: the land, the activities carried out on it for its efficient management or rational use, and the disruption caused (Article 27). Land and property are valued by size, nature, location and prevailing market rates, and the disruption compensation is 5% of the total value of the property expropriated (Article 28). Valuation must be completed within 30 days, extendable by 15 (Article 29); the expropriator decides on the report and publishes it within 15 days (Article 31), and owners who agree sign it within a window of 7 to 21 days (Article 32).

Contesting the amount

An owner who disagrees with the value must state its grounds in writing within 7 days of approval of the valuation report and, at its own expense, commission an IRPV-recognised valuer or firm, whose counter-valuation must be ready within 10 days (Article 33). The expropriator decides within 5 working days of receiving it. If it accepts, the counter-valuation replaces the original report; if not, minutes recording the points of disagreement are signed by both sides and their valuers (Article 34). The owner may then refer the matter to the competent court within 15 days of signing those minutes. The expropriator's figure is paid in the meantime so that the project is not suspended. These are short periods for a company whose decision-makers sit abroad, and they are the most common way investors lose leverage.

Payment, relocation and mortgaged property

Compensation is paid in Rwandan francs or in any other form agreed, and must be paid before the owner relocates (Article 35). It must be paid within 120 days of approval by the District or City Council or the Ministry; if it is not, the expropriation becomes null and void unless the parties agree otherwise, and once paid the owner has up to 120 days to move, without planting crops that take longer to harvest (Article 36). An expropriator that withdraws after valuation, or pays late, owes an extra 5% of the compensation; if the parties agree to continue after a late payment, the 5% is paid first and the extension may not exceed one year, and a withdrawal after such an agreement costs a further 5% (Article 37).

Money is paid into a bank account of the owner's choice, into a joint account for co-owners, into the public treasury where co-owners disagree or no account is provided within 30 days, and, where the property secures a loan, into the account designated by the bank or financial institution (Article 38). A lender therefore has a direct claim on the compensation, and a borrower should expect its bank to be involved from the valuation stage (Mortgages, security and the real estate business).

Requisition and termination for non-use: the 2024 Order

Separate from expropriation, the State may act against land that is not used. Article 49 of the Land Law allows it to terminate a land ownership contract after a 90-day written notice where the holder has not met its obligations, unless the holder shows reasonable grounds, and Article 70 allows the Minister to requisition unexploited farm, livestock or forest land. Ministerial Order n° 002/MoE/24 of 10/07/2024 relating to temporary requisition of land and termination of land ownership contract (Official Gazette n° Special of 11/07/2024) supplies the detail. Agricultural or forest land of 5 hectares or more left idle for a year without sound reason may be requisitioned temporarily after 90 days' notice, for 3 years for agriculture and 10 for forestry.

Article 18 lists the grounds for termination: the owner's own written request; failure to exploit land that is served with basic infrastructure such as road, water and electricity, located where building permits may be issued and where the master plan is being implemented or in a prime area designated by the council, and not exploited in line with the plan for at least five consecutive years; failure to reclaim requisitioned land or to meet the conditions attached to it; or another reason approved by the Cabinet. Article 18(2) allows an investor's agreement with the competent authority to vary these grounds. The Mayor of the City or District applies to the Chief Registrar of land titles with five years of reports and of letters asking the owner to exploit the land, the last two years' letters reminding it of its right to transfer (Article 19). The Chief Registrar gives a 90-day notice, recorded in the land register (Article 20). During the notice period the owner may sell or transfer the land to someone able to exploit it, but the buyer's contract terminates automatically if it does not develop the land within two years (Article 21). On termination the land is valued, the value is paid to the owner after deduction of the cost of works, and the land is registered to the buyer (Article 22).

Practice, and how investors protect themselves

Experience on the ground has not always matched the statute. A 2024 Transparency International study, cited in the United States Government's 2025 Investment Climate Statement, reported short notice, that only 41.3% of those affected were informed beforehand, and compensation that often did not reflect prevailing market rates. Those findings are secondary, but they explain why the statutory deadlines matter: an owner who has its documents ready and its own valuer instructed can use the 7-day and 10-day windows, while one that waits cannot.

Practical protection starts long before any notice. Register every transfer and building so that the land title and the evidence Article 26 requires exist; keep records of improvements and their cost; negotiate in any investment agreement with the State the termination grounds that Article 18(2) of the 2024 Order allows to be varied, and the compensation basis for any taking; and diarise the 30-day, 15-day, 7-day and 10-day periods as soon as a project is published. Where compensation is inadequate, the court route in Article 34 and, for qualifying foreign investors, treaty remedies remain; public law challenges are discussed in Regulatory, tax and public law disputes.