Persons with mental disabilities are at risk of property-based violence.

The mental health experts say that the causes of this illness are close to a person, in his daily life. These include divorces, harming someone, auctioneering, and poverty; where there is a lot of demand but no response, unemployment/joblessness, drug addiction... etc.

This also makes many people candidates for mental health problems. The biggest problem is that the members of these issues are not accepted in the Rwandan community, which is the source of the violence.

Celine Mukakarira; The director of the Cooperative Ihumure-Gikondo for people with mental illness, says that violence starts in their families.

"In the family, they don't understand a person with that disability, to feel that he is their patient, to care for him, to help him, and to feel that it is a disease that can be treated and cured," she said.

Hajabakiga Thomas from Rulindo District also admits that if you have a mental disability, you will be cut off.

 “a person with a mental disability becomes a cut-off in the family. The brothers don't feel for him anymore, they feel that he is a sick person and it's over, “He said,

Mutesi Rose; The leader of the organization that takes care of people with mental disabilities called NOUSPR-Ubumuntu, in Africa and commonwealth countries, says that one of the most serious abuses faced by people with mental disabilities is based on property.

 “As soon as he has that problem because he was born as an orphan, the surrounding families are going to grab the property, he can’t control it anymore. Wherever he goes, the families will show and tell them that they’re managing him because he is crazy, and then a person becomes homeless, in case there is his father's property! And you find a person with no food, he has a bad life in case his property is earning money, the others who came close to him, are the ones who can benefit from that, she noted.

This violence against persons with mental health disabilities is a serious and common problem in many African countries. Only Mutesi says that the basic medicine is held by members of the family society.

In terms of property, organizations that advocate for persons with disabilities are eyeing the new Law on Protection of Persons with Disabilities, which will specifically address the properties of people with mental health problems.

This law will provide that when a person is sick he can sue for his property and it will be accepted.

In terms of numbers, the organization taking care of people with mental disabilities shows that they have gathered more than 3,700 people. This number was collected based on the people taking medication in basic clinics in different regions. This means it doesn't include those who don't take the medicine, and who don’t have someone who can care for him.

Normally, Persons with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socio-economic outcomes than persons without disabilities. Therefore, disability statistics show that 3.4% of 13.2 million Rwandan residents have disabilities, and 0.6 of them have cognitive disability. The number shows that most of them are female, [ NISR, 2022].