However, before disputes were brought to the kings, they were heard locally by wise men as what is referred to as Gacaca. The name Gacaca is derived from the Kinyarwanda word umucaca meaning “a plant so soft to sit on that people prefer to gather on it”. Originally, Gacaca gatherings were meant to restore order and harmony within communities by acknowledging wrongs and having justice restored to those who were victims. However, with the colonization of Rwanda and the arrival of western systems of law, Rwandan society soon began to change as a whole. With this implementation and usage of western legal systems, Rwandans began to go to courts to deal with their disputes. In turn, kings and wisemen soon began to lose their legitimacy within Rwandan society. And with this loss of legitimacy, Gacaca courts began to dwindle down in numbers. Post-Genocide Gacaca After the conclusion of the genocide against the Tutsi, the new Rwandan government was having difficulty prosecuting approximately 130,000 alleged perpetrators of the genocide. Originally, perpetrators of the genocide were to be tried in the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda); however, the vast number of perpetrators made it highly improbable that they would all be convicted. Given that there were insufficient resources to organise first-world courts, the Gacaca system had to be preferred over the only alternative to the Gacaca system for local communities which might have been revenge. To deal with this problem, Gacaca courts were installed, the goal of which was to: Establish truth about what happened Accelerate the legal proceedings for those accused of Genocide Crimes Eradicate the culture of impunity Reconcile Rwandans and reinforce their unity Use the capacities of Rwandan society to deal with its problems through a justice-based Rwandan custom. The categorization of Gacaca courts in Rwanda is based on the concept of a cell and a sector. A cell is equivalent to a small community while a sector is equivalent to a small group of cells making up a village. Within these two categories, there were 9013 cells and 1545 sectors, with over 12,103 Gacaca courts established nationwide. Presiding over the Gacaca meetings are judges known as inyangamugayo. These judges are elected to serve on a nine-person council. During the Gacaca process, there were two phases which took place. Starting between 2005 and 2006, information was taken from those who were accused from all Gacaca cells. The approximate