Inequitable dev't threatens land rights of unregistered land owners

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By James Muhindo

If the promulgators of the Millennium Development Goals had had an idea of what life would actually be by 2015, they would have done one of two things; either set a century long target or put much less efforts in their work.

Their 2015 target has arrived at a time when the livelihood of mankind is at a record low – South Africans burning their fellow blacks in broad day light, Islamic state in Libya slitting people’s thoughts, Boko Haram, the Al-shabab, Ebola and the waters of the Mediterranean Sea all taking lives in scores.

And worst of all, governments seeming to neglect the very people they are mandated to protect at the expense of Development and foreign investment. What happened to “Be thy brother’s keeper”?

In a nutshell, there is high level of despondency and apathy among people. If you doubt this, ask Ministers, Aronda Nyakairima and Daudi Migerako about their Amuru escapade, where disgruntled women undressed before the General and his colleague upon the threat of displacement from ancestral land.

The question of land rights and protection of the ordinary Ugandan citizen’s right to property under Article 26 of the constitution has now more than ever been threatened by the quest for development at national and local level.

Legally, land in Uganda belongs to the citizens who hold it in accordance with the four land tenure systems i.e. Freehold, Leasehold, Mailo and Customary land tenure. Ownership of land in any of the four tenure systems can be secured through registration, and this has been predominantly done for freehold, leasehold and mailo land tenure. Notwithstanding evictions/displacement through Compulsory Land Acquisition by the government for public interest, registered land is largely tenable.
However, the challenges associated with customary land ownership make its registration rather tedious, leaving most of the land owned customarily unregistered. This is buttressed by the fact that over 70% of land especially in the countryside is unregistered hence making it susceptible to land grabbing.

Given the traditional and cultural heritage of Ugandan communities, land was always treated as a “common good” that was never privately owned but belonged to the community as whole hence the notion of communal land.

Regrettably this system, just like the African monarchies and chiefdoms, crumbled at the sight of capitalism and it continues to succumb to the whims of indifferent and shroud businessmen who without regard to the native communities, acquire land titles for these chunks of land in squire miles and displace thousands men, women and children.

Through my experience with Global Rights Alert’s work in advocating for transparency and good governance in Uganda’s extractives industry, it has come out clearly that the land rights of ordinary wana’nchi are barely protected.

The Albertine Graben is one of the most affected areas where due to oil discovery, the land in the region has somewhat become more precious than the oil underneath it. Despite the government ban on issuance of land titles in the Albertine, speculators continue to fraudulently acquire titles and displace people from their ancestral lands with neither notice nor compensation. Ironically, the ban on titles seems to only apply against the native occupants of these lands. The case is not different in other mining areas.

Government has also been accused of abusing, the law on compulsory land acquisition and taking advantage of areas gazetted as game reserves and national parks to displace people from their fringes.

The gravity of the land problem has consequently prompted some human rights advocates to call for a constitutional limit on how much land a single person should privately own.

This is because the rate at which communities are being dispossessed clearly shows that if the practice is not checked, the country will in the near future be privately owned by a few individuals and the rest of us as squatters in our own mother land.

In conclusion, I am inclined to believe that if nothing is done to avert the plight of the disempowered Ugandans especially the women and youth, there is much more “undressing” in the pipeline.

The writer is a lawyer and Human Rights advocate