Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda /The obsever Newspaper.
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 18:17
When President Museveni said that he would ensure the Land Amendment Bill 2007 is passed, at all costs, he meant it. Now, the President, determined to achieve his goal, has instructed his lieutenants to effect “a fundamental change” in the contentious draft legislation.

If the new proposal is included in the law; the tenants, victims of “rampant” evictions by landlords whom the amendment was seeking to protect in the first place, will also face penalties for illegal occupation of land.
According to our source, President Museveni last week instructed the NRM Secretary General, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, to handle the matter alongside Daniel Omara Atubo, the Minister of Lands, and the Attorney General, Khiddu Makubuya.
As a result of this presidential intervention, when Atubo unveils the amended version soon, it will have a clause imposing a jail term of up to seven years against illegal land occupants.
The current amendment bill that has been rejected by the Buganda Kingdom reserves punishment for landlords who carry out illegal eviction.

The move to punish tenants too is an indication that the President is finally yielding to pressure from Buganda Kingdom, the church and other groups and individuals opposed to the Land Amendment Bill 2007 in its current form.
The President, who has insisted that the Bill is intended to protect powerless peasants, will now find himself in an uncomfortable situation of shifting his stand. He will now have to tell the country that, actually, he intends to protect everybody.

The verbal instructions to Mbabazi were communicated during the September 9 NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting at State House Entebbe, a senior Cabinet source has told The Weekly Observer.
During that meeting, the NRM Vice Chairman for Western, Brig. Matayo Kyaligonza, had proposed that land reforms be put on the agenda of the meeting.

Two CEC members; Hassan Basajjabalaba and NRM Treasurer, Ndawula Kaweesa, told the President that it would be wrong to make a law to protect only one party to a conflict.
In response, Museveni said that illegal occupants, just like illegal evictors, should also face a seven-year jail sentence. He detailed Mbabazi to write to the Minister of Lands and the Attorney General on this new position.

Atubo told The Weekly Observer on phone this week that a colleague who sits on the NRM’s CEC had informally told him about this change. He had not been informed officially. Atubo however explained that when the letter arrives, the new proposal will be tabled in Cabinet and later before the NRM Parliamentary Caucus.
Katikamu North MP, Abraham Byandala, whose physical infrastructure committee is handling the Bill together with the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee, told The Weekly Observer on phone this week that consultations on the proposed legislation have been concluded.

Last week the two committees listened to Conservative Party (CP) leader, John Ken Lukyamuzi, and invited land owners to give their views, but they declined, according to Byandala.
The back and forth movements on the Bill means that Byandala who wanted to present a report about it to Parliament in a month’s time will now have to wait a little longer.

This is not the first time the four-clause Bill has been changed.
For example, the initial draft didn’t include land owned under customary tenure system, which raised suspicion that the legislation was intended to specifically regulate land in Buganda held under private ownership.
Customary land tenure system was consequently inserted in the second draft, drawing disapproval from the North, East and Karamoja where land is customarily owned.

Buganda pressure

Government sources told us that the President who has flexed muscles with Buganda for a year over this Bill has been cautioned by his intelligence that the bill could prove politically costly for him.
A May 6 Cabinet memo prepared by Omara Atubo after a countrywide consultation tour by four Cabinet teams revealed that many NRM supporters in Buganda were uncomfortable with the confrontation between Mengo and the President.

“Participants demanded for the 9,000 square miles of land to be handed back to the Buganda Kingdom… In all meetings, participants urged H.E the President to meet with the Kabaka in order to address tensions created by the LAB. As a means to avert further conflicts and evictions,” reads the memo.
The quarrel between Museveni and Buganda leaders over the Bill climaxed into the July 18 arrest of two Buganda ministers; Charles Peter Mayiga (information) and Medard Lubega (state for information), plus Ms Betty Nambooze who heads the Baganda land sensitization Central Civic Education Committee (CCEC).

Our sources in government have told us that after the arrests, the President instructed his intelligence to assess the impact this may have had on his support in Buganda.
What shocked Museveni, the source said, is that his staunch supporters in seven out of the nine districts sampled by the spies, advised against the Land Amendment Bill, 2007.

But the President will not abandon the Bill, as he is not one to concede defeat in a fight. A more dignified escape route, sources say, is to address the major concerns raised by Buganda.
The kingdom’s Research Minister, Daudi Mpanga, has told The Weekly Observer that he welcomes the latest changes on the Bill. “It shows what we have been talking about all along; that this Bill was not well thought out, it was haphazardly put together without the participation of the stakeholders,” he said.

He added that thorough research was not done on causes of evictions. Mpanga further said that the Bill should be withdrawn and instead the government should commence a process to formulate a land policy to address current shortcomings