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The Ministry Of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development has started to register landowners in Gulu and Agago districts so that they can acquire certificates of customary ownership.

While speaking during a consultative and mobilisation meeting of stakeholders in the Acholi sub-region on Tuesday, February 27, at the Gulu District Council hall, Dorcas Okalany, the permanent secretary in the lands ministry said they have started registering landowners in Gulu sub-counties of Unyama, Paicho, and Awach, and in the Agago sub-counties of Paimol and Lapono, before extending the exercise to other districts in the sub-region.

Okalany said she will be in Gulu City for two weeks to get comments related to certificates of customary land ownership so that they chart ways forward as some people have negative attitudes about it.

“I am here to sensitise and mobilise stakeholders in the Acholi sub-region to secure their land by acquiring certificates of customary ownership and help them with modern tools of land management,” she said.

Okalany said in 2015, the ministry began implementation programs to register customary land and issuance of land documentation to customary land owners in the districts of Kasese, Nwoya, Agago, Mbale, Pader, Adjumani, Katakwi, Soroti, Butaleja, Kabale, Kisoro, Moroto, Nabilatuk, Nakapiripirit, Amudat, and Kabong. She added that in the Karamoja sub-region, they have covered 90%.

She says they have incorporated over 600 clans and communities in the entire country and issued 78,156 certificates of ownership to individuals, families, clans, and communities as evidence of ownership

Okalany requested the cultural leaders to support the implementation of a certificate of customary land ownership to reduce land conflicts.

Prof. Jack Pen Mogi, the acting chairperson of the Uganda Land Commission said the certificate is very important in protecting the customary land and asked leaders in Acholi to sensitise the community to embrace it. 

“Let us make sure that every piece of land in Acholi gets the certificate because it is a developmental project to protect our land and can be used as security in banks when you want to borrow,” he said.

Prof. Pen Mogi noted that people in Acholi sell land cheaply because they cannot borrow money from the bank as they lack land documents.

Certificates reduce conflicts 

Leonard Ojok, Agago District chairman said in Paimol and Wol sub-counties where the lands ministry has issued 1,017 certificates of customary land ownership to families, clans, and households, cases of land conflicts have reduced

He advised the leaders to encourage the community to title their land with an addendum that the land is not for sale.

“This certificate will stop numerous land conflicts and will be the legal certificate of our land if we embrace it,” Ojok said.

Samuel Laguu, the Gulu Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, said the Acholi sub-region is blessed with vast land, but has a lot of land conflicts. He said despite the vast land, people are still mired in poverty.

Alice Akello Opio, the Gulu District Resident Commissioner said 90% of the cases they receive in the office are land-related matters.

“Every day I wake up, I first kneel and pray to God to give me wisdom and knowledge to handle land conflicts, I believe if people acquire titles of their land, it will reduce the high land conflicts cases in the district,” she said.

Akello encouraged the people of Acholi to embrace titling their land to reduce land conflicts as they have registered many cases of murder related to land conflicts.