Besigye proposes reforms to solve land grabbing

PIC:  Dr. Kizza Besigye addressing a press Conference from his home in Kasangati/ Photo by Meddie Musisi.

Former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has recommended four point plan reforms to help government resolve the current land-grabbing crisis.

He said that these will go a long way in curtailing a looming break down of law and order in the face of government resolving to amend the land act to enable government acquisition of private land without halting the current land grabbing situation in the country.

Addressing journalists, Besigye said government should immediately suspend further large-scale land acquisitions until a moratorium on state-based land grabbing is put in place, a critical legal analysis of current land laws and related corruption is carried out, and until low levels of public knowledge regarding land tenure and rights are addressed.

Besigye said that to ensure that investments and developments grow side-by-side with rights of people on their traditional land and territories, "the above recommendations must be implemented for land governance structures to be strengthened and for citizens to feel secure in the proposed land reforms."

He added that, "We are not opposed to development but the proposed land reforms are sensitive to human survival which can plunge us into chaos if taken lightly. We are challenged with enormous land grabbing and the attendant displacement of people often using brutal means and impunity so you can't suggest easy access to private land without resolving the problem at hand."

During the concluded government meeting at the National Leadership Institute, Kyankwanzi, it was resolved that government will move to amend the land act to provide for easy access on redundant private land to among others fast-track construction of the proposed 24 industrial parks.

However, Besigye notes that in the past, government has demolished public facilities for other investment projects that are yet to take off."You can't give leverage to a government with corrupt officials on peoples land because we've seen it happen before even in absence of an enabling law. Shimon demonstration school was demolished to construct a hotel that is not there to date.

 The Naguru-Nakawa housing estate left people homeless but nothing is there to date so government should be careful this time round because people are keenly following," Besigye said.

Dr. Kizza Besigye and wife Winnie Byanyima receiving gifts from a delegation from Masaka at their home in Kasangati Yesterday Photo by Meddie Musisi.

He added that with a weak land management system and corruption rooted in government, selfish investors and imposters will start acquiring land the size of villages and sub counties under the guise of the amended land act.

Besigye also warned that although accelerating land registration will help in improving management of land to increase its production, it should be done after making owners aware of land value.

Following a $55 million grant from the World Bank in 2014 to issue one million land titles, the lands ministry last month announced 'open land registry days' across the country, where Ugandans will have a chance to register their land and conduct land title searches free of charge with pilot exercises in areas of Mukono, Jinja and Kampala done annually.