Land: Govt sets new rules for opening boundaries

Clearence must be got from the minister of lands to open boundaries of disputed and other encumbered land across the country, according to new government guidelines. 

The lands ministry top management in a meeting held in Kampala on April 24, 2025, came up with a raft of regulations aimed at preventing what they termed “unco-ordinated movements, disputes and operational disorganisation”. 

“Accordingly, boundary opening exercises on land with disputes, encumbrances, or overlapping titles should only proceed after obtaining clearance from the minister,” stated the April 24, 2025 internal memo from lands minister Judith Nabakooba to the permanent secretary, Dorcas Okalany. 

However, experts have quickly warned that the guidelines will virtually render district surveyors idle considering the time it will take the minister to respond to all boundary disputes across the country. 

Dated April 24, 2025, the memo, a copy of which New Vision has seen, stated that this approach is intended to allow thorough consultations with all stakeholders and affected parties, ensuring the process is well co-ordinated and any concerns are carefully addressed beforehand. 

“This is not intended to usurp the powers of the commissioner for surveys and mapping, but rather to strengthen co-ordination and oversight. It is aimed at safeguarding the integrity of land administration processes and preventing disputes on the ground,” it read. 

It also stated that all reports and matters requiring boundary opening clearance should be routed through the permanent secretary and minister [in this case Nabakooba] for decision. 

In another memo, Nabakooba also informed Okalany that the top management meeting had asked her to constitute a committee, in agreement with the members, to exercise due diligence and ascertain the status of land before the issuance of special certificates of title and cancellation of titles by the commissioner for land registration (CLR) to applicants.

“This does not mean that the powers of the CLR are overrun, but [this is] done as a policy to address the complaints/ concerns by members of the public. The committee should comprise officers of integrity from the office of the CLR, legal department, physical planning, and surveys and mapping,” she wrote. 

Nabakooba also told Okalany that the meeting agreed the committee must be facilitated for their activities. 

“The committee will regularly report to the permanent secretary and the minister on matters handled,” she added. 

In February last year, Nabakooba asked local council (LC) chairpersons across the country to block private surveyors from opening boundaries on any disputed pieces of land in their areas on the grounds that they fuel conflicts. 

The lands minister made the call while addressing local leaders from five districts — Hoima, Kakumiro, Kassanda, Mubende, and Kyankwanzi — on new ways of handling land matters in a bid to reduce the recurrent cases of land conflicts in the country. 

“I caution you, the village chairpersons, against allowing surveyors to do boundary opening on land because this will plant conflicts in our areas. Provide mediation and conflict resolution support during boundary harmonisation efforts,” she told the LC chiefs at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi. 

Opening boundaries of a disputed piece of land by surveyors hired by landlords is always seen as a ploy to evict bibanja holders. 

“Do not allow anyone to carry out unlawful evictions. If the landlord wants to use the land, let them first compensate the bibanja holders according to available rates in the area,” Nabakooba told the local leaders, including district chairpersons, councillors, LC3 chairpersons and ruling party chairpersons at different levels.

Mixed reactions 

Charles Nampendho, the president of the Society of Professional Physical Planners of Uganda, welcomed the guidelines, saying they have come in handy at a time when applications for boundary opening exercises are being pushed to local governments. 

“Such guidance has come in timely as a lot of applications for boundary opening are being pushed to local governments, though it is also hard for local governments to establish whether a particular application has a land conflict. But where we suspect a particular piece of land is being contested, then ideally such guidance is okay,” he said.
 
Nampendho explained that the new guidelines “actually stop us from giving permissions for boundary opening on land where we suspect multiple interests”. 

“So, we will be forwarding the conflicting parties to that committee once it is formed, and our local government officials will no longer be hunted for giving permissions for boundary opening,” he added.

Guidelines unenforceable 

However, seasoned lawyer and Busiro East MP Medard Lubega Sseggona said the new guidelines are not enforceable in practical terms. 

“They have literally made opening of boundaries impossible because how much time does the minister have to attend to all that, as they are trying to do across the whole country? That means the minister is not going to do anything else,” he said. 

The Busiro East legislator also argued that district staff surveyors are the ones vested with the power to open boundaries. 

“So, the district staff surveyors will now be rendered useless and idle. You can’t issue guidelines which more or less have the force of a statute. Such guidelines must only be to enforce the statute, not to provide for substantive rights. But let’s see how it goes,” Sseggona said.

Not feasible!

Alozius Gonza, a valuer and president of the Institute of Surveyors of Uganda, also wondered how the minister will be able to give timely feedback to applicants for boundary opening on disputed pieces of land across the country. 

He argued that you can know there is a dispute on a piece of land from the parties themselves who are contesting the actual boundary of the land. 

“Now if these parties are neighbours at home and one of them decides to call a technical person like me to come and guide them in opening the boundaries to just confirm where their plots pass and now the minister is saying before I come in, they have to first get clearance from her — what is going to happen because the minister is always busy? When will you get feedback?” he asked. 

Gonza said there are “a lot of dynamics” regarding the issue of opening land boundaries, but what would be sustainable is to create detailed guidelines. 

“I know the Surveyors Registration Board created guidelines for opening boundaries and what would be good is for the ministry of lands to look further into these guidelines and see how comprehensive they are because boundary issues are not caused by surveyors,” he said.