The land law amendment targets Kabaka



Land law amendment : Kibirige Mayanja



The Draft Land Bill which makes illegal occupants bona fide tenants is unjust, partisan and will create more land conflicts than it will solve.



The Bill targets to punish the Kabaka of Buganda and the Buganda government presumably for rejecting the ill-conceived Regional Tier, to undermine the Judiciary for reasserting its independence and crashing the opposition parties for speaking out against corruption and nepotism.



Unfair provisions

The most obnoxious provisions include: The provision which entrenches tenants who settle on land without the consent of the landlord as bona fide tenants. This is further reinforced by a provision which allows the Minister of Lands to issue a land title to tenants without the consent of the landlord.



The removal of the ultimate powers for adjudicating land disputes from the Judiciary and vesting such powers with presidential appointees right from the Minister of Lands to Resident District Commissioners (RDCs).



The Kabaka and Buganda government are targeted in several ways. For example, the timing of the Land Bill is intended to undermine Buganda or to intimidate them to take the amorphous Regional Tier.



The Land Bill was introduced ahead of the government’s promised resumption of negotiations with Buganda on the Federal system of governance. Government promised to resume negotiations with Buganda immediately after Chogm and indeed it has reiterated this stand.



One of the major items on the central and Buganda governments’ agenda for discussion is the return of the 9000 sq miles. If the Bill were to be enacted into a law before the Buganda Federal issue is resolved, it will make the Buganda government demand for 9000 sq miles totally irrelevant.



Illegal occupants

Secondly, the Crown Land has many illegal occupants who are being legalized as bona fide tenants by the Bill. Among such occupants are the Balalo. If the Balalo and other illegal occupants get land titles, this will effectively undermine Buganda’s claim on the 9,000 sq miles.



With regard to the Judiciary and opposition party members, they are dealt with under the provision which removes the ultimate powers to decide on eviction from the Judiciary and vests it with the Minister of Lands and the RDCs.



Once a partisan RDC takes charge of deciding land disputes, he/she will always decide them on political grounds, in favor of the NRM sympathizers.



For instance, a JEEMA tenant will be evicted in favour of an NRM landlord and an NRM tenant in similar circumstances will win and take over the land from a JEEMA landlord once land matters are put under the jurisdiction of partisan minister and RDCs.



Who will ever associate with opposition parties to lose his/her land? The Proposed Land Bill is part of the plot to entrench Museveni as life President. During the two times I contested the presidential elections in Uganda, my supporters were threatened by Movement functionaries such as RDCs to be evicted from their legally acquired land if they stood on their conscience to support me.



Indeed many decided not to show open support to me for fear of losing their land. What started as political blackmail is now being entrenched as a law of grabbing land from those who don’t support NRM.



By removing the power to adjudicate land disputes and vesting it in the Minister of Lands and RDCs, land is being turned into a political cake to be dished out to NRM supporters and win votes for president Museveni.



JEEMA’s stand

JEEMA’s stand on this issue therefore is as follows: Let the NRM government resume and finalize negotiations with the Buganda government on Ebyaffe (the Federal issues and the 9000 sq miles) Buganda is demanding before an amendment to the Land Act comes into consideration.



The ultimate power to decide land disputes must be vested with the Judiciary and not the partisan Minister and RDCs. To help the peasant who cannot afford legal costs for law suits, the government should provide free legal services for all land disputes as we had provided in my manifesto for the presidential elections.



The best way to solve land disputes in Uganda is to define the interests of the tenants and the landlord. We suggest that the basic interest of the tenants be fixed at 40% and the landlord’s interest at 60%. This formula is widely used and it has amicably solved many land disputes in Buganda. It also makes it easy for the Judiciary to decide land cases.



Finally, the current Land Bill was formulated in a confrontational mood, with ill intentions towards Kabaka, the Judiciary and members of the opposition parties and cannot be improved upon.

The Bill should be totally abandoned and a new appropriate Bill formulated after establishing the legal framework of Buganda State Government.



The writer is President of Justice Forum and former presidential

candidate