By Joyce Namutebi
and Mary Karugaba

A clause on customary land should be excluded from the Land Amendment Bill, Acholi Members of Parliament have suggested.

“The Acholi Parliamentary Group advises the Government to leave customary land alone. Landlords have adequate mechanisms to handle their matters,” the chairperson of the group, Livingstone Okello-Okello (UPC), said during a press conference in Kampala yesterday.
He was responding to a new proposal by the Cabinet to amend the Bill.

The Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, recently submitted to the joint committee handling the Bill that Section 32 (B) on customary land should provide that a district land board shall not allocate plots under customary tenure. However, Okello-Okello said the new proposal would expose communal plots to land grabbers.

He urged lands minister Omara Atubo to withdraw the Bill “to save everybody a heartache.” He warned that if passed into law, it would not be implemented.
The MPs reiterated their earlier position that the Bill should be withdrawn.

Customary land ownership is a system predominantly found in eastern and northern Uganda. Under the system, land is communally owned by clans.
Kitgum MP Beatrice Anywar attended.