Women have equal rights on land ownership, says govt

Aug 31, 2015

Women will continue to suffer from land conflicts out of lack of knowledge of the issues pertaining to land ownership, an official at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has said.

By Cecilia Okoth and Esther Wakooli

Women will continue to suffer from land conflicts out of lack of knowledge of the issues pertaining to land ownership, an official at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has said.


Speaking on behalf of the Lands Minister, Daudi Migereko, Dennis Obbo, the spokesperson said a lot needs to be done to sensitize women on matters of land ownership because if not addressed, they continue to suffer.

"The constitution provides for ownership for both women and men but the customary systems on which 80 percent of land in Uganda is considered to be, tends to discriminate women because of certain negative behavioral codes," Obbo said.

He made these remarks at a one day conference on women land rights, organized by Action Aid and Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) in Kampala. The theme for the day was 'Securing women land rights through responsive and responsible governance of tenure in Uganda.'

Obbo said 80 percent of the land in Uganda which is customary land,  is not registered due to a number of myths by unscrupulous people who do not want the owners of various pieces of  land to register their land.

"One important myth they say is that if a certificate of customary ownership is registered, you can only have five people registered on it. But the truth is you can register an individual, a family and also a community on a communal land association on the certificate of customary ownership," he explained.

Obbo also pointed out another myth that the certificate is inferior, a myth he dismissed, saying a certificate once issued is proof of ownership of whoever the holders on it are.

The other myth he revealed was the notion that the people supposed to issue these documents are not there and do not know what to do.

"The ministry has issued certificates, and even trained the recorders meant to issue them," he said, adding that there is need for sensitisation of people living under threat of evictions because they lack recorded documentation to have their land recorded.

Edmond Owor the Executive Director ULA said the alliance gets increased number of land conflicts happening between families, neighbours, communities and those involving large scale investments and land grabbers.

"It is a situation that is going to be part of us for a long time and we must prepare to be able to challenge it especially when it comes to the rights of the common person who are under threat of being evicted," Owor said, adding that the customary land tenure only limits women's rights to access and not control or ownership.

Giving a testimony of the challenges women face in Kapchorwa, Irene Cheptoek, a rural farmer who attended the conference said women generally have that social attitude that they are not supposed to own land.

"In Kapchorwa, the man owns the land; he decides what to plant on it and what to do with the harvest. The women mainly provide the labour and are not even allowed to enjoy the fruits of the hard work they injected on the land," Cheptoek said.

Addressing the normative behavioral codes, Obbo said proponents of women's secure access to the use, and ownership of land commonly cites the need to change cultural attitudes that limit women's ability to exercise control over land.

"Take an example of the recent cases of women undressing themselves in Amuru and Soroti districts protesting over land wrangles. Nudity is not the answer. They have to get legal documentation which will confer and show ownership of land and can be proved or defended anywhere under the law," he said.

In the past women undressing in public was a taboo and it was often used to scare men as a curse.

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