Kibaale landlords to be paid sh19m

Aug 22, 2009

Absentee landlords in Bunyoro will be paid between sh12.8m and sh19.2m per square mile, so that their land can be redistributed to landless indigenous people, Saturday Vision has learnt.

By Ben Okiror & Chris Kiwawulo

Absentee landlords in Bunyoro will be paid between sh12.8m and sh19.2m per square mile, so that their land can be redistributed to landless indigenous people, Saturday Vision has learnt.

Lands ministry spokesman Dennis Obbo said Government valuers had estimated the land in different parts of Bunyoro to be worth between sh20,000 and sh30,000 per acre. There are 640 acres in one square mile.

The valuers, he said, consider quality and location of the land. “The price is determined on a case by case basis. The price depends on whether the land is in an urban or rural setting, whether it has developments on it or not and whether it has trees.”

The Uganda Lands Commission has put notices in the press, inviting applications from absentee landlords who are willing to sell their registered land on a willing buyer-willing seller basis.

The exercise, which began in Kibaale district, will be extended to other districts in Bunyoro as funds become available, the commission announced.

In the last seven years, the commission bought back 76,819 hectares of land in Kibaale district, using sh5.5b it received from the Land Fund. Obbo revealed that for this financial year, they received sh3b.

The commission has been holding sensitisation meetings with the absentee landlords, encouraging them to sell off their registered land.

“The Government has already bought land from some absentee land lords and is only awaiting a land policy to decide on the mode of re-distribution,” said a source at the commission.

However, lands ministry officials noted that most of the absentee landlords have been holding onto their land in the hope that the value will appreciate.

If this continues, the commission might be forced to employ compulsory acquisition of land from absentee landlords.

There are 3,636 absentee landlords in Bunyoro region, with the biggest portion found in Kibaale district, records of the Uganda Land Commission show.

A total of 964.8 square miles of mailo land in Kibaale is owned by individuals, according to records from the commission’s department of land registration.

The majority of the owners of the huge chunks of land in Kibaale are Baganda. They got the land from the British colonialists as a reward for helping them fight and defeat the Banyoro who resisted their rule.

Records show that plot 1 block 42 with 1,433 hectares in Buyaga belongs to Kabaka Mutesa II while the current Kabaka, Ronald Mutebi, owns plot 3, block 90, measuring 231 hectares in Bugangaizi.

Other prominent absentee landlords are the then Governor of Uganda Sir Walter Coutts, Birimumaso’s son Kasozi who owns the entire Karuguza trading centre in Kibaale and the families of Buganda regents, Stanislas Mugwanya and Apollo Kaggwa.

The indigenous Banyoro have vehemently opposed the land giveaway by the colonialists and branded the move an act aimed at reducing the Bunyoro kingdom to a non-entity.

The Banyoro have since filed a suit against the Queen of England, Buganda, the Uganda Land Commission, the Attorney General of Uganda, the Electoral Commission, and all Baganda absentee landlords seeking 500 billion pounds as compensation.

“About 70% (or 686 square miles) of the land belonging to absentee landlords is in Kibaale,” noted Atwooki Kasirivu, the special presidential advisor on land matters.

Ironically, about 90% of the absentee landlords do not know the exact location of the land they own in Bunyoro, he added.

The Government had initially budgeted sh25b to compensate all absentee landlords, stated Kasirivu. “But with the ever appreciating value of land, the cost is now estimated at between sh40b and sh50b.”

Kasirivu said that whereas the absentee landlords are to be compensated, it should be noted that colonialists violated the rights of the indigenous people by giving out their land.

“The million-dollar question is: Are the Banyoro, whose rights to their land were violated, liable to compensation?”

However, Mengo information minister Charles Peter Mayiga advised the central Government to be careful when dealing with the issue of land belonging to absentee landlords in Bunyoro.

He noted that whereas Buganda was not carrying out any activity on the land the Kabaka owns in Bunyoro, they may need to use it in future.

“The Government should be careful when removing people from land in Bunyoro because there are also some Banyoro who have land in other regions like Buganda. If we are to go by that view, we can also ask how those Banyoro acquired land here and whether it was through proper channels. People have land allover Uganda.”

Mayiga rubbished claims that the colonialists supported Buganda to grab Bunyoro’s land, arguing that the two kingdoms were fighting each other for over 400 years before the advent of the white men.

He added that Buganda had captured several parts of Bunyoro in various earlier wars. “The whites only came with superior weapons which Buganda took advantage of.”

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