Museveni will protect customary and bibanja land owners

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OPINION

By Moses Byaruhanga  

As President Yoweri Museveni traverses Buganda, there is still the issue of the land question in this area.

The land conflicts can be traced from the 1900 agreement between the British and the leadership of the Buganda Kingdom at the time.

Prior to the agreement, land in Buganda was owned by the Kabaka on behalf of the people of Buganda. With the agreement, land in Buganda was divided into Mailo land, which was allocated to the Kabaka and other leaders of Buganda.

The other land, crown land, was left under the colonial government. The land that was allocated to the leaders was occupied by the people who were using it before the Mailo allocations.

These occupants became bibanja holders under the Mailo landowner. They were made to pay rent to the Mailo landowners. The rent was paid in kind by contributing part of their produce to the landlords.

This unfair relationship went on for some time, causing friction between the landlords and the bibanja holders.

The landlords kept increasing the rent until 1928, when the colonial government passed the Busuulu and Envujjo law that put a limit on the rent a kibanja holder could pay to the landlord.

The Mailo land tenure system went on until in 1975, when Amin abolished it and put all the land in Uganda under the ownership of the government.

It was the NRM during the debate in the Constituent Assembly that restored Mailo land along other land tenures in the 1995 Constitution.

The other tenure systems in the Constitution are: freehold, leasehold and customary.

Notwithstanding the restoration of Mailo land, the Constitution recognises the bibanja holders on Mailo land as lawful owners of their land and cannot be evicted.

Therefore, any eviction of a kibanja holder is illegal. However, there are reports of illegal evictions. Sometimes you hear that security forces are used illegally to entice lawful tenants.

We have put in the NRM manifesto that any security officer found involved in illegal extenuating will be dealt with harshly.

In order to protect the land rights of the bibanja holders and the customary land owners, the NRM government has undertaken the measures illustrated below.

The NRM Government started the issuance of Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCOs) under the customary tenure system. This involves mobilisation, sensitisation, surveying and issuance of Certificates of ownership at a subsidised fee of sh10,000 irrespective of the size of land. 

The CCO is issued by a Recorder at Sub-County/Town Council, and in the case of a City, it is at the Division level. 

In order to protect the rights of tenants on registered land under the mailo tenure system, the Government introduced the Land Inventory Protocol (LIP) as social evidence of occupancy and the Certificates of Occupancy (COOs) as legal evidence of possession.

Under these processes, the Government demarcates the kibanja of the tenants, and if you have the evidence of paying busuulu, you get the Certificates of Occupancy, and if not, you get the Land Inventory Protocol. These two are registered as encumbrances on the Registered Proprietor’s mailo title.    

The reason most people do not have Certificates of Occupancy (COOs) is because many of the living landlords do not have Letters of Administration to update the ownership of the mailo land title.

The Certificates of Occupancy (COOs) and Land Inventory Protocols (LIPs) are registered as encumbrances on the Registered Proprietor’s mailo title, hence the kibanja holder should never be evicted from the land.

So far, 104,340 Land Inventory Protocols (LIPs) and 558 Certificates of Occupancy (COOs) have been processed and issued across the Country.

These have returned peace, harmony and productivity to the tenants without any further threat of eviction.

However, in some places like Butambala District, 2,043 parcels of land have been mapped out, but politicians de-campaigned the exercise, and as a result, the affected people have not received their

Certificates

Using the Land Fund under the Uganda Land Commission, the NRM Government has been buying land from the Landlords and giving it to the sitting tenants.

In Buganda, the land availed to the Government for purchase is worth 230,496,561,88, to purchase 33,109 hectares of land.

This is equivalent to 82,772.5 acres or 129.3 sq. miles. So far, 98,199,109,654 has been paid. There is a balance of 132,297,452,235.

From the 98.1 billion above, 12,715 hectares (31,787.5 acres or 49.7 square miles is already fully paid, while 13,680 hectares (34,200 acres or 53.4 square miles is partially paid for.

The land where no payment has been made is 6,714 hectares (16,785 acres or 26.2 square miles) is not yet paid for, but the bibanja holders on it are safe because going has caveated it. 

For the land which is fully paid for and that partially paid for, the government is in the process of carrying out a systematic demarcation, after which titles will be allocated to the sitting tenants.

In the new kisanja, President Museveni will increase the land fund and buy more land from the Mailo owners willing to sell their land to the government and allocate the said land to the lawful sitting tenants.

The writer is a Senior Presidential Advisor/Political Affairs, State House