18 NEW VISION, Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Editors
Note

The time to
work is now

Last Thursday marked the end of a long

election period. The period that started in
October 2015 peaked with the swearing-in
of President Yoweri Museveni. MPs are
swearing in today and tomorrow, while
local council leaders will swear in next
week. Throughout this period, many of you
farmers had abandoned your farms and
became politicians of sorts. Some of you
stood for various elective positions. Some
of you won, while others lost. However, no
matter the outcome, both of you are still
needed at the farm.
For those who won, you can only use
your new political positions to develop
the agricultural sector further. If you go
to Parliament, then make sure that you
advocate agriculture development. Make
sure that in subsequent budgets, the sector
gets more funding than it does now. At
the local government level, make sure that
you carry out the required supervision of
agriculture-related activities in your area
so that farmers get value for
money.
If you lost the elections,
the best way to recover is
to go back to the farm.
Introduce best practices
that will make your
farm admired by all
so that when the
next elections
come, the farm
will sell your
candidature.

HARVEST MONEY

How our land tenure

This is the first of a three part
series of stories on land tenure
system and its impact on
agriculture production in Uganda.
In this part, we look at the legal
elements, their weaknesses and
strengths and what should be done
to improve them
By Joshua Kato
Felista Akellos red eyes summed up the
bloody story of the fight between communal
land and big agricultural investments in
Acholi. Her district, Amuru, has seen some
of the most ferocious conflicts over land for
agriculture in recent years.
They told us that they are coming here
in peace, unfortunately, nobody comes for
peace. They take away your land, she says.
Adding: The land of our ancestors cannot
just go away like that.
But where are they taking the land? I ask.
Do you want to see them loading it on their
tractors and taking it away? she asks, before
threatening to do what some of other women
did last year, when they undressed before a
Cabinet minister.
Most of Acholi and Lango land is
enviously fertile, thanks to the many years of

If you do not want to die

in Africa, keep away from
two treasures of man;
land and woman.
Goobi

Joshua Kato
Editor

Land background, laws

An expansive 83% of Uganda is
covered by land. And if this land is
divided equally among the entire
population, every person would get
at least 0.3 acres. If it is, however,
divided among all the households,
each would get around 1.2 acres. In
Uganda, land is regulated through
several laws. These include the
Constitution, the Land Act 1998 plus
several ammendments, The Mortgage
Act, The Registration of Titles Act,
Land Acquisition Act, plus related
laws like the National Environment
Management Authority Act and
Wildlife Act.
A total of 20% of the land in Uganda
is registered and mapped, while the
rest is under communal systems.

redundancy during the Kony war. Beautiful

things lure suitors and for the last five years,
Acholi has been the main battle ground
between both big and small investors in the
agricultural sector over land. Indeed, there
are some businesspeople who have bought
land through a willing buyer-willing seller
arrangement. However, that is not also as
easy as under other tenure systems.
Akellos temper typifies everything about
land ownership in Uganda. Whether it is
in Kayunga, Mubende, Bunyoro, etc, land
ownership is the leading cause of strife. If
you do not want to die in Africa, keep away
from two treasures of man; land and woman,
says Ramathan Goobi, an economics lecturer
and researcher at Makerere University
Business School (MUBS).
According to the 1998 Land Act, there are
mainly four recognised land tenure systems
in Uganda. These include the mailo land
system, leasehold, customary and communal
land systems. These, however, evolved
through generations.
Communal land system
According to Kirunda, the majority of
Ugandans hold land under this tenure. He
says this system is dotted with lack of security
of tenure for the land it impedes development
because it does not allow the advancement
of land markets through which those who
want land can acquire it and it discriminates
against women.
However, in some parts of the east, some
community members have started registering
the land and getting certificates of ownership.
The practice, especially in the far eastern
part of Uganda, has grown whereby families
that previously held land under customary
tenure have sought and obtained certificates
of title, Kirunda says. In some cases, the title

Women in Kapchorwa tending to a rice field. Land issues are hindering large scale
production of food. Pictures by Joshua kato
has got as many as 50 proprietors. Kirunda
says this development has had the major
benefit of making this land commercially
attractive.
According to Norah Owaraga, a cultural
anthropologist and research of the customary
tenure system is good for the people. Every
member of the community feels that he owns
a part of the land, she says. She explains that
this should have been the national tenure
system had it not been for the coming of
colonialism.
Before the 1900 agreements, land belonged
to the people of the various nations, with no
individualistic ownership. What we call

Uganda had over 50 sub-nations and each of

these had their system of land administration,
Owaraga says.
She says these laws worked and there was
no problem. For example, in Buganda the
institution of the Kabaka managed land on
behalf of the population. The laws of our
people worked. However, after the 1900
Agreement, these laws were bastardised by the
new laws of the state, she says. This is when
the system of tenants started.
Chiefs were given huge pieces of land in
order to bribe them to sign the Protectorate
agreements and unfortunately, these huge
pieces of land already had people occupying

Individual land ownership systems

Mailo land deadline
Under the Mailo land system, land is owned
in perpetuity by the landlord. The word
mailo was coined from the fact that each
of the first beneficiaries was given a mailo
(mile) of land under the 1900 agreement.
Mailo land is more prevalent in the central
region and parts of the west. Under the
system, land ownership is registered with
the area landboard and a title of ownership
issued to the landlord. If the land is occupied
by other people, they are called bonafide
occupant and the Land Act explicitly explains
how they deal with the landlord. However,
the relationship of landlord and the occupant
creates a dual kind of ownership. Robert
Kirunda, an advocate of the High Court and
land don at Makerere University, however,
says, the creation of dualism on mailo land
is a recipe for conflicts.
There are mainly two ways through which
one can become a mailo land title holder.
When the system started in 1900, the chiefs
who got this land immediately, became mailo
owners. Through the years, generations of
these chiefs have sold pieces of their land
to other people, who also, after buying, are
given titles, hence becoming mailo land
owners. Anybody who is occupying this land,
but without a title is known as a tenant.
The definition of rights accorded to
bonafide occupants in the Land Act (Cap
227) and all subsequent amendments, lack

legitimacy on the part of land owners,

Kirunda says. The Land Act (Amendment)
2010 grants statutory protection to the
bonafide and lawful holder and his or her
successors against any eviction as long as the
prescribed nominal ground rent is paid.
However, the nominal ground rent
provided for, as opposed to economic rent, is
largely ignored, creating a land use deadlock
between the tenants and registered land
owner, leading to conflicts and many times
evictions, Kirunda says.
Freehold tenure
Freehold is almost similar to mailo land
tenure since it requires one to register a
land and a title given in perpetuity. At the
moment, most freehold land holding is
under institutions such as churches and
schools. It is clear that the public policy
regards freehold as the property regime of
the future, to the extent that the current law
provides for conversion from leasehold or
customary tenure to freehold, Kirunda says.
Leasehold
This promotes a sophisticated form of
concurrent ownership such as condominiums
and time share arrangements, thus opening
land to a much larger range of users. A lease
is given to a person by the owner of the land,
be it mile or freehold or even customary.
Leases can run from five to 99 years.

HARVEST MONEY

NEW VISION, Tuesday, May 17, 2016

19

systems are sowing hunger

them, who immediately became squatters, she
says. This is when vast pieces of land in many
parts of Buganda were titled to just around
3,000 chiefs and family members. This was
irrespective of the fact that they had millions of
people settled on them.
Other pieces were declared colonial land,
later becoming state land, while another 9,000
square miles were kept in reserve or vested in
the state for the people of Uganda. Some chiefs
families, for example, that of Sir Apollo Kaggwa
received over 100 square miles, while the other
regents received at least 15 to 20 square miles
of land scattered around Buganda. Other chiefs
received between one and 10 square miles.
Among the other most prominent misnomers
was the creation of the absent landlord in
places like Kibaale and Buruuli, Owaraga says.
The misnomer of the absent landlords came
about after two counties in Bunyoro, namely
Buyaga and Bugangaizi, were given out to
Baganda chiefs as compensation. At the time,
the counties had thousands of people on them.
The 1975 Land Reform Decree, however,
changed the status quo. The decree, issued
in the middle years of Idi Amins regime,
abolished the mailo land tenure system and
vested all land in the state for the citizens.
Despite the supremacy of the doctrine of
eminent domain, this was a welcome legislation
that reassured the citizens of the ownership of
land rights in general, Dr John Kigula, a senior
legal consultant on land, says.
Conjugated laws and policies
The many land regulations are a near tragedy
of truncated rights, according to researchers.
This is because interpretation of each of them
sometimes conflicts with the other.
Kigula summarises a good land tenure
system as one that should be able to support
agriculture. And in Ugandas case, should not
force people off land and should protect the
rights of the citizens.
A range of challenges have risen in the
course of the application of the main land
tenure and administration law, the Land Act
1998. There are related challenges arising from
the implementation of related acts, Kigula
says.
Kirunda points at a clash of the laws over
the mailo land owners vis--vis the tenant and
squatters that when interpreted give more
powers to the squatter rather than the mailo
land owner. Then at the end of the day, this
dualism makes the land less productive.
Because of the dualism, neither the squatter
nor the title holder can use the land effectively.
The squatter cannot set up long-term,
commercial agricultural projects because he
does not own the land, while the title holder
cannot also set up any project there because
the land is occupied by the squatter, Kirunda
says. In the long run, this affects agricultural
production.
Kigula says; The Land Act failed to unlock
the deadlock between the mailo land owner
and the tenant or bonafide occupant of his
land. It has made the land not so much
commercially viable for the mailo land owner
and at the same time not equally so much
commercially useful to the tenant, he says.
Kirunda explains that the calamity and the
glaring gaps within the laws are not helped by
overt and covert political statements.
Prof. Ogenga Latigo (MP-elect for Agago
North County), a farmer and researcher on
land issues, says: Equally, for us politicians,
any attempt at radical land reforms is met with
huge political risks.
He explains that this is because contradictory
provisions on land were enacted to buy
support and appease voters. He explains: And
advocacy on land by we politicians is more
about playing to the gallery of voters, Such
political statements have failed or affected
projects in places like Acholi, Lango, Mubende,
Bunyoro and Kayunga.

Farmer Amooti Isingooma on his farm in Fort-portal, Kabarole district

Expert views

Dr John Kigula, a senior legal

consultant on land:
We should make it mandatory
for every land owner to put
aside part of their land for
particular purposes to meet
legally specified national goals
such as food security.

Robert Kirunda, land don

at Makerere University:
Communal land system is
dotted with lack of security
of tenure for the land, it
impedes development and
discriminates against women.

Way forward with the laws

The experts argue that to answer the land
question, food security and agricultural
transformation in Uganda, a lot of idle land
should be put in use. However, this can only be
achieved if laws enforcing usage of this land are
put in place.
Ogenga-Latigo said a number of people have
gone land banking, purchasing large chunks of
land and leaving it idle at the expense of food
production.
With a law in place, the Government can
force land owners to put their land to use or
rent it out to other people, who can make it
productive, he explains.
He added that the current National Land
Policy does not explicitly define land as a key
national resource critical for production and
national development and transformation.
It is a horse placed after the cart. It focuses
on rights of women, children, etc. It does
not marry rights given in the law with use nor
does it set individual obligations on effective

Norah Owaraga, cultural

anthropologist and research:
Customary tenure system is
good for the people. Every
member of the community
feels that he owns a part of
the land.

land use. In short, our policy does not help in

the key challenge of promoting land use for
food security, agricultural transformation and
development, he says.
Kigula says: Any land not used or used
otherwise as planned, is taxed to force land
owners to properly use their land, to enter
into use partnerships or to hire out land or
out-rightly sell land they cannot use, thus
transforming land utilisation, Kigula says.
He noted that there should be a formal and
legal definition of land use for agriculture on
the basis of agro-ecologies, commodity targets
and land availability. We should make it
mandatory for every land holder to put aside
part of their land for particular purposes to meet
legally specified national goals of food security,
woodlot, environmental protection and strategic
production, he says
Dr Samuel Mugasi concurs with the other
experts that there cannot be sustainable
commercial agriculture development without
the Government having a stronger say in

Prof. Ogenga Latigo farmer

and researcher:
If we put a law in place, the
Government can force land
owners to put their land in use
or rent it out to other people
who can make it productive.

land acquisition matters. We must create a

system where the thousands of people that are
occupying big pieces of land without putting
it to proper use are given alternatives so that
the land is used for agriculture, he says. Such
alternatives include developing the industrial
and services industry.
State minister for agriculture Vincent
Ssempijja says that indeed the regulations
must be streamlined to make land more
agriculturally productive.
You get instances where somebody comes
with $150m and all that he needs is a piece of
land to invest. Certainly there is no way you
can refuse to give him land, he says. However,
he explains the current regulations have to be
streamlined to ease this land acquisition.
In the second part, we examine how
agriculture land owned by the state is
being misused. This story was written
in conjunction with African Centre for
Media Excellence