BY NATHAN EYAGU
SOROTI
Responsible Land Policy in Uganda [RELAPU], a project which is part of ‘’ one world, no hunger’’ a special initiative of the German federal ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ) has wound its activities.
RELAP has been working closely with GIZ a non-government organization and other partners in Teso in five different sub-counties of Soroti and Katakwi districts since 2016.
The project had the objective of improving access to land as a key pre-condition for poverty and hunger reduction in rural areas for certain population groups like women and other marginalized groups in central, northern, and eastern Uganda.
On 10 August [yesterday] RELAP ended its’ services in the Teso sub-region for Northern Uganda at a function that was attended by different leaders, stakeholders, and others at Asuret sub-county headquarters in Soroti district.
The team leader RELAP project Ms. Christine Ketter said it is not their decision to leave Teso at this point when they are needed most but that their donor had decided on the next move.
“Our office will remain in Soroti and I request everyone to us for any advice,” said Ms. Ketter.
She revealed that they have left behind a lot of capacity built and equipment that will help continue with unfinished work and she called upon all those wishing to work closely with them to do so as the project has not ended but only extended to another region.
‘’ The situation has changed not as we came, where we faced some challenges winning trust of the public as there was suspicion and fear when we came from Kampala, that we had come to grab the land, one of the success factors was to bring the local leaders together and work closely with the authorities so as to help the public know the advantage of having their land registered and we were able to help about 50,000 men and women’’, Ms Ketter said.
What the government says
“We are moving out to start producing and issuing digital certificates compared to manual certificates via the system, while these certified today will be placed in the land information system alongside the three holds, the leaseholds and the mailo titles so that anyone searching for a title on customary land shall be able to see it at the national level, we thank all partners for what has been done as we move forward’’, Mr. Denis Obbo, the spokesperson for Ministry of Lands, housing and urban development.
He added that as a Ministry and government they have secured Shs 32 billion to be used to continue the activity in 35 different districts including those in Teso region.
He said people won’t be going to Kampala to get the services as it will start from the area land committee to the district board for approval before all documents come back to the sub-county for registration and safe custody while other processes shall also be computerized.
“Those who have not got the service should also come and pay Shs 10,000, a subsidized fee by the government to secure your land rights, and getting a certificate alone will cost you between Shs 3M –Shs 5M and a freehold is between Shs 5M –Shs 8M,” he added.
District leaders speak out
Mr Godfrey Omolo the LC5 of Katakwi district while giving his remarks thanked GIZ for the support they gave to his district through the RELAPU project where four sub-counties in Katakwi district benefited from as many have testified.
‘’As a district in the sub-counties of Omodoi and Toroma that were handled, we currently receive very few cases of land wrangles compared to when the project wasn’t in existence,” said Mr Omolo.
He asked GIZ to leave behind the equipment that was used before to help the trained team to continue assisting the locals as less than 20% was covered due to the wrong perception of the public that the government wanted to take their land.
The LCV chairman for Soroti Mr Ekuu Simon Edoru also said they were having a number of issues with land but the coming in of GIZ with the RELAPU project, they managed to handle 30% of the sub-counties and as a result, helped to reduce the cases.
‘’We have come up with some fee to facilitate the process as there are trained personnel behind who will help in those communities and as local government, we need to ensure that we work closely with those trained to help reach out to other sub-counties, ’’ he said.
Mr Emorut Samuel chairperson of area land committee Asuret sub-county also explained that they have benefited much from GIZ especially getting the right to customary land ownership, a program that was started in 2018 where about 3,379 applications were received and 2,531 applications have been mapped and the pending ones are 848 as the project phases out and requested the locals to add up some financing to help those trained.
What the beneficiaries say?
Mr Samuel Edoru, one of the beneficiaries who is the LC1 chairman of Otatai central cell, Asuret sub-county, said he personally sees the benefit of demarcating land because it has reduced land wrangles and land cases.
Mr Kedi Niko also testified that from the time he got his land demarcated those who were struggling for his land all went mute as the exercise was done with the presence of his neighbors as witnesses and that this has greatly helped him and his family.
‘’We have benefited a lot, at first there was worry that it was a plan by the government to take away our land but when I personally took part in it, I paid a small amount of money, there is peace now as those who were encroaching on our land also stopped,’’ Ms Leah Anyodi said. Ends
