Midweek Opinion <em>with John Kakande</b>

Aug 05, 2003

ON June 25, I wrote under this column urging President Yoweri Museveni not to assent to the Land Act (Amendment) Bill passed by Parliamentand not to grant powers to the District Land Boards (DLBs) to set busulu (rent) payable by land tenants.

Katikkiro Should Tread Softly Over ‘Busulu’ Issue
ON June 25, I wrote under this column urging President Yoweri Museveni not to assent to the Land Act (Amendment) Bill passed by Parliamentand not to grant powers to the District Land Boards (DLBs) to set busulu (rent) payable by land tenants. I stated that the Bill was a recipe for disaster.
President Museveni, while speaking to journalists at State House, Nakasero on July 15, declared that he would never assent to the Land Act (Amendment) Bill because he did not want a “situation where people are given power to overcharge others on land rent.”
During the 10th coronation anniversary celebrations at Bbowa, the Buganda Kingdom’s Katikkiro, Joseph Ssemwogerere, urged the President not to send the Bill back to Parliament. In effect, the Katikkiro was asking the President to assent to the Land Act (Amendment) Bill as passed by Parliament on June 18, 2003.
With all due respect, I believe the Katikkiro is mistaken, if he believes that the Bill would serve the interests of the majority of the people in the Kingdom. I still insist the president should not assent to this Bill. It is a dangerous capitulation to landlord interests. The implication of this new Bill is that for the first time since 1928, the Central Government won’t have any direct say in regulating busulu.
I appreciate the Katikkiro’s position. The Kingdom has vested interests in the issue of busulu and land in general. The Kingdom stands to gain, if busulu is commercialised. But there is not doubt in my mind that commercialising busulu would create a new and extremely explosive conflict between the mass of bibanja owners in Buganda and Mengo, which in the long run could be politically exploited by the anti-monarchists.
Thus, I urge the Katikkiro to tread cautiously on the issue of busulu. It is important that the issue is debated objectively. It should not be portrayed as a Buganda Kingdom issue since it affects people outside Buganda on leasehold and freehold land as well.
There seems to be a misconception that landlords are only Baganda. This is not true. The landlord class in Buganda is multi-ethnic. Although the 1,000 notables who were given land in Buganda in 1900 were Baganda, the situation has fundamentally changed over the years and a significant number of big landlords in Buganda today are from outside the region.
For instance MP, Issa Kikungwe, is currently embroiled in a dispute with a landlord in his Kyaddondo South constituency, who has dispossessed some peasants without any compensation. The landlord, a widow whose husband was a top army officer in the Obote regime, is from outside central region.
Mengo should therefore note that, while a greater percentage of bibanja owners may be Baganda, the landlords are a cosmopolitan class.
Ends

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