Leaders decry rise in land conflicts in Lango
Aug 30, 2023
Geoffrey Ssalam Ngobi, the Deputy Registrar of the Lira High Court circuit, decried land cases flooding Lira court.
Lands commissioner Lekwa Addu Nassar (second-left) joined by the local leaders, flagging off the lands awareness week at Lira City Mayor's garden on Monday. (Photos by Joseph Ekol)
By Joseph Ekol and Patrick Okino
Journalists @New Vision
______________________ Women joyfully dancing at the event to launch the lands awareness week at Lira Mayor's garden on Monday.
Leaders in Lango have decried the rise in land conflicts in the region.
The larders say the conflicts are causing a rise in lawsuits and affecting production.
The concerns were raised on Monday by several stakeholders during the launch of the seventh National Lands Awareness Week at the Mayor’s Garden in Lira City.
Geoffrey Ssalam Ngobi, the Deputy Registrar of the Lira High Court circuit, decried land cases flooding Lira court.
Ngobi said these cases are majorly because of boundary issues because of the LRA insurgents that affected the region.
He said with the help of civil society organisations, through lawyers, they have been able to refer some cases to be settled out of court.
To reduce this he said, it requires the strengthening of the cultural institutions so they can take up the mantle that will enable reduction of land-related court cases.
Ngobi urged the religious leaders to work hard to bring back people to their morals so land wrangles could be reduced.
David Kennedy Odongo, the Alebtong district LC5 chairperson, said over 70% of the inmates in Lango prisons are serving punishment for land-related crimes.
This, according to him, is because the customary land tenure system makes it difficult to determine the true owner of the land, making it hard to make a ruling in court.
According to Odongo, what makes this more difficult is that most times, to settle disputes, people bring in other cases such as criminal trespass that may not solve the real issue.
“Sometimes some of these cases take over 20 years in court yet the disputed land is not being used, this also affects the production,” Odongo explained.
He urged the Judiciary and Police to be fair to the vulnerable people who may not have income in settling land issues.
Land committees influence
The Rev. Fr. John Bosco Oryema, the secretary of lands at Lira Catholic Diocese, said land disputes are rampant in Lango because the sub-county area land committees are not inducted, hence they cannot deal with land matters in their area.
Even in areas where the committees know what to do, they cannot do the right thing because of the interest of the appointing authorities that interferes with their work.
At the district level he said, the District Land Boards are not independent, he said they tend to bend the instructions perhaps given by the district appointing authorities.
Clan heads blamed
Meanwhile, George Ojwang Opota, the Prime Minister of the Lango cultural institution (Tekwaro Lango) blamed the increasing land conflict on negligence by some clan heads whom he said have failed to use the materials given to them to educate their subjects.
Ojwang said Tekwaro Lango provided all the clan's heads with land user Principle Practices rights and responsibilities of the land tenure system in land 2009 to help them settle land matters, but some have not done much in implementing what is in the guide.
Dialogue in solving land issues
The commissioner of land Administration in the lands ministry, Lekwa Addu Nassar, who presided over the launch, said the land awareness week has the objective of bringing together government, civil societies, and other stakeholders to dialogue in forging a way of resolving the land matters.
Nassar said in exercising this, they are going to protect the interests of women and the marginalised to protect their rights on the land.
According to him, about 70% of the land in Uganda is used by women, but less than 15 % of women own land.
He said his finding shows that most of the land disputes in Lango are between families or within clans and disputes on succession, which can still be solved amicably.
He urged the stakeholders to use the offices of the DISOs, Religious institutions, and political leaders to settle the land matters before they escalate.
He also encouraged people to write Wills so that when they die, succession can take place without disputes among family members.
The launch was attended by districts of Alebtong, Kole, Otuke, Amolatar, Kwania, Lira, and Apac, CSO dealing in lands including, Lands and Equity Movements in Uganda and Caritas Lira and members of the legal fraternity.
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