By Sadique Bamwita
KAMPALA
The President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has urged all Ugandans to embrace massive land registration in order to get rid of land grabbers in the country.
The President sounded the call on November 22, 2024 in his speech that was read on his behalf by the State Minister for Lands Housing and Urban Development, Hon. Sam Mayanja.
President Museveni noted that Land use in Uganda is central to the actualization of the core Constitutional values of human dignity, equality and the advancement of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“Land is the most critical pillar that drives economic transformation and causes growth and development. In Africa and especially the sub Saharan region, statistics show that 90% of land is not registered,” he said.
The President further said that Uganda’s registered land stands at 30% which is still very low and shows that the remaining 70% which is mostly customary land has remained unrecorded, insecure, prone to disputes and conflicts with no scientific record of the boundaries, and not accessible to those seeking to lease, rent or hire it for commercial agriculture production.
‘I commissioned a Parish to Market project in Acholi sub-region aimed at promoting socio-economic transformation through the use of customary land. The project was affected by delays because some legislators alleged that it was a ploy to grab unregistered land. This project, as is the case with others, was introduced to customary land owners, to promote the growing of low value cash crops for export,” he said.
‘It also aimed at setting up demonstration and commercial farms to build on the associated value chains and ensure that the unutilized communal lands that have been idle for the past 100 years benefit the customary land owners. But because it was not registered, some leaders misinformed the people and cast doubts on our agricultural projects, which would have created wealth and income for them, citing that the intentions and people behind it could be after stealing land, ‘President Museveni expressed concern.
The President argues that registered land cannot be stolen and hence the urgent need to register all customary land and ensure that the Government keeps a record of the owners.
‘This action would help the Government link registered owners with those seeking to lease land for production. I am informed that this process has now moved, with the Acholi clans being incorporated as legal entities and surveying their lands in order to be issued with customary land titles. This is the way to go.
‘Many of the NRM’s development programmes have been delayed or become unnecessarily expensive because of keeping land outside the Land registry.
‘In 2005 Cabinet approved establishment of the Land Information System to collect, process and keep a record of all land holdings in Uganda. Our thinking at that time was that this intervention would provide a basis for making Government work more efficient and effective, while at the same time restricting certain uses of land that destroy the environment and at the same time curb land fragmentation which is a big problem in most African countries, ‘Mr. Museveni stated.
President further argues that since Uganda is a market driven economy, it is now important that the Land Information System protects the rights of all land owners and tenants by occupancy in order to create certainty of land ownership and use for the one investing on the land and to be able to correctly and transparently identify and recognize land owners and any other user rights that exist on the land at any one time.
“Government is aware that a high percentage of people living in the rural areas are still involved in primitive land use practices that fragment and degrade the land,”Mr. Museveni expressed displeasure.
The permanent secretary Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development Mrs. Dorcus Okalany believes that if land is registered, then it strengthens the finance sector and unlocks opportunities for growth and wealth creation, calling for reforms to move land from the subsistence economy to the land market in order to be available for production.
Mrs. Cristina Banuta, who represented the Ambassador of the European Union to Uganda, emphasized the need to secure land arguing that this is fundamental for productivity and sustainable growth. She however says that in their efforts to tackle land matters the European Union has partnered with the government of Uganda through programs targeting customary land tenure, mailo land governance and responsible land investments
