Justify the need to protect women and children’s land rights under the

laws of Uganda.
In Uganda, ownership of land includes ownership of everything above, below and
on the land as explained in the Latin maxim, Culus est. Solum, eius est. usque ad coelum et ed
inferos which means a person to whom the soil belongs also owns the heavens above and
everything below. Article 26(1) of the Constitution of Uganda further provides for the right to
ownership of property which can either be individual or in association with others. Section 38(3)
of the Land Act provides for right to use family land give to a spouse in which she is given
authority to with hold her consent to any land transaction. Article 31(2) of the Constitution of
Uganda provides for authority given to parliament to make appropriate laws for the protection of
the rights of widows and widowers to inherit the property of their deceased spouses and to enjoy
parental rights over their children. Protection of the right to own land by women is also seen the
case of Best Kemigisha versus Marble Komuntale in which Best Kemigisha lost her husband and
her matrimonial property was customarily supposed to be attained by her late husband’s family.
However, she petitioned against this custom and it was held that she had right to inheritance of
the land hence the land was maintained under her ownership. The case of Babiruga versus
Kalegyesa explains that under the laws of Uganda, children have no rights to land ownership but
are however permitted to have care takers of this land till the age of 18.

The reasons as to why there is need to protect women and children’s land rights under
the laws of Uganda include,

1. As vulnerable groups of people, women and children are faced with a number
of problems like customary provisions, inequality and others which lead to the
denial of their rights to ownership of land hence the need to protect their land
rights.
2. Protection of women’s land rights economically empowers them to purchase
their own land that is through protection of these rights, women are given
liberty to purchase and own land as individuals hence doing away with the
previous customary laws in which women were prohibited from owning land
which violated their land rights.
3. Protection of women’s land rights encourages equality amongst the genders in
Uganda in a way that it does away with the old customary laws which
prohibited a woman from owning land hence creating gender inequality
however through the newly developed laws in Uganda, women are allowed to
own land which encourages equality.
4. Protection of women’s rights to land protects the rights to inheritance of land
by unmarried women in which customary laws state that an unmarried girl has
equal rights to her father’s land as any of her brothers unlike the previous laws
which limited inheritance to only the male children hence denied the unmarried
girls the right to inherit land from their fathers.