Bino byayanjuddwa minisita omubeezi ow’amawulire Medard Lubega Sseggona ng’ayogera eri abantu abakung’aanidde mu luggya lwa Bulange wiiki ewedde okusomesebwa ku bikyamu ebiri mu bbago ly’etteeka ly’ettaka ery’omwaka 2007.
Yagambye nti bannamateeka abanaakwasibwa omulimu guno baakulangirirwa mu bwangu.
Olukung’aana olunaddako lwakutuula mu kibuga Mityana nga November 16.
Lubega yasinzidde mu musomo guno n’alabula gavumenti obutetantala kuleeta Balaalo abaagobeddwa ku ttaka lyayo e Kihura mu Buganda nti kuba Obuganda bubeetegekedde okubagoba.
Minisita yakubirizza Abaganda okutegeeza abaana baabwe ekituufu ku banyaga ettaka lyabwe bakule nga babamanyi basobole okulirwanirira nga bakuze.
Yagambye nti Pulezidenti Museveni okulemera ettaka ly’Abaganda abeera atambulira mu kibi kya Milton Obote.
Land Act: Why is Buganda breathing fire on changes?
Mengo, the seat of the Kingdom of Buganda, is once again at logger heads with the central government. In Bunyoro’s oil rich Lake Albert basin Buliisa District has been a battle ground while clashes have continued in Apac District in northern Uganda. At the centre of all these feuds is land. What is wrong with land legislation in Uganda? Robert Mwanje and Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa investigate
The land tenure system in Uganda has been much violated that you could easily fail to understand the actual steps to take when acquiring land. The confusion is manifest in the increasing land wrangles across various regions of the country.
The fight over land is not restricted to the pastoral groups now christened Balaalo and residents in various parts of the country but also among the big and small business people.
Controversial public lands that government has given to potential investors or converted use for the benefit of individuals have all come together to turn the country into one big land conflict zone.
Observers say the land crisis has in part been orchestrated a failure by people in government to balance broad political interests and individual economic concerns, a fact demonstrated by persistent efforts to please the voting peasants who are mainly tenants at the expense of the economically powerful land lords, especially those acquiring land today.
According to a draft of the proposals recently presented to the NRM Caucus in Parliament to kick-start the amendment process of the Land Act, the Lands minister would have powers to stop illegal land evictions ‘using administrative directives to RDCs, police, land boards and land committees’.
Recently, the Buganda Lukiiko, the Kingdoms supreme decision making body, rejected the new proposals describing them as a “grand scheme to disenfranchise landlords under the guise of protecting peasants and other types of tenants.” The Lukiiko also argued that the amendments were meant to favour only the Balaalo.
The land woes hit crisis levels mid this year, when pastoral peasants known as Balaalo clashed with the agricultural Bagungu in Buliisa District over land. The Balaalo have also recently been fought and their cattle killed in Apac District. The Balaalo have been a major target of ethnic violence in different regions of the country with the indigenous tribes accusing them of trying to grab their land.
In Buliisa, the Balaalo claimed to own over 30 square miles of land, which they say they bought since their arrival in 2003. They claim to have bought the land at Shs800m.
Recently, another group of armed pastoralists (Balaalo) was ferried in Mawokota County in Mpigi district and in Kyagwe County in Mukono with hundreds of herds of cattle.
But the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Mutebi expressed worries that it was only in Buganda where land is grabbed from its rightful owners with impunity. He said many people were encroaching on Buganda land on the pretext that the national Constitution allowed them to settle in any part of the country. The Kabaka asked government to control the interruptive movements of the herdsmen (Balaalo) who have become a menace in the kingdom.
The land-grabbing crisis has extended to different parts of the country though the grumbling has for long concentrated in Buganda.
In Mukono district, Buganda Lukiiko (parliament) member representing Kyaggwe County, Mr Sevume Musoke, told Inside Politics that he had evidence that President Yoweri Museveni and other top government officials were buying land in his area to settle pastoralists.
The land, 660 acres found in Namizo ‘B’ village, Kayonza sub-county, was bought by Mr Museveni in 1997 from the officer in-charge of welfare at State House Ssikubwabwo Kyeyune, and Mr G.W Buliisa. The cost was not disclosed.
Mr Francis Bampeire, the chairman of the relocated Balaalo maintains that they received the offer when they met Mr Museveni in Ntungamo in 1997 and asked him for land.
“Mr Museveni organised transport for us and our property and ferried us to the land,” Mr Bampeire said recently. “Each family was allocated 20 acres.”
However, one of the people who claim to be the owners of the land in dispute, Mr Samuel Muhairehwa has demanded compensation from the President before he leaves the land. He claims the land was illegally sold to the President.
Mid this year, the Mukono grade 1 magistrates’ court ordered the eviction of Mr Muhairehwa saying he lacked documents to support his claim.
On June 19, court bailiffs Jackson Mwesigye destroyed his (Muhairehwa’s) home and crops. But Mr Muhairehwa has vowed not to vacate the land until Mr Museveni intervenes.
The Minister for Lands Mr Omara Atubo insists the proposed amendments on the Land Act only aim at protecting bona fide land occupants and peasants from eviction.
The increasing land wrangles in the country might erupt into violence and genocide if government does not regulate the land laws suitably, legislators have warned. Kawempe South MP Ssebuliba Mutumba said corruption and dishonesty in sharing public resources equitably, especially land could spark unprecedented genocidal force.
He said the way the government was handling laws regulations vis-à-vis the proposed amendments in Land Act (1998) will create violence among communities. “This business of not sharing public resources equitably and the way the Land Act is likely to be changed, it is inevitable that people will “cut” (kill) each other,” Ssebuliba said recently.
He who is also the vice chairman of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), opposed government’s decision to amend sections of the Land Act (1998) without consulting all stakeholders.
“Similar problems [genocide] have happened elsewhere in the world and in the neighbouring Rwanda. The president should not be shocked when his ‘people’ [Balaalo] are attacked,” he cautioned.
Amuria county MP and Disaster Preparedness State minister Musa Ecweru said the amendments were have good intentions but it could lose direction. “The intentions for making the amendments are good and we pray that the law comes in place to cure the problems associated with land,” Ecweru said.
“We hear that there is a new batch of them [Balaalo] in Teso but they are occupying wetlands. How can you be a bona fide occupant in a wetland to benefit from the proposed new law? They have to leave.”
Ecweru, though now a member of the cabinet, raised eye brows when still commander of a militia group, the Arrow Boys, that fought the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Soroti, when he flogged the Balaalo who had encroached on Teso wetlands.
Outspoken former Rubaga South MP Ken Lukyamuzi also the president general for the Conservative Party (CP) says, “It’s a shame to undervalue people. Even the proposed East African federation cannot succeed unless people are given a chance to decide on the way forward.” He said people must be properly consulted to make their input in the new land law.
Democratic Party (DP) president Mr Ssenaana Kizito said that land wars will be inevitable given the way the government is handling the land question. He said the on-going land wrangles were initiated by President Museveni simply to gain cheap political popularity.
“He [Museveni] is trying to destroy the relationship between the landlords and tenants so that he emerges a savior after creating confusion. He wants to create a land revolution but this will cost him a lot,” Ssebaana said adding, “I also have fears that genocide is getting closer.” He said Museveni’s intention was to suppress Buganda’s legacy and strengthen the Chwezi Empire.
“Museveni has it [promoting the Chwezi] at the back of his mind because that is where he belongs. It’s actually no surprise that Balaalo are grabbing land every where,” Ssebaana said adding that, “It’s a ploy to reinstate the Chwezi.”
FDC Publicist, Mr Wafula Oguttu said land was a delicate issue which government must handle with the utmost sensitivity it deserves. “Land is a very explosive thing globally and in the Ugandan context, Buganda has a unique tenure system and to undo it government has to be very (careful),” he said by telephone.
Wafula also said that the new set of amendments is targeted at the protection of the Balaalo herdsmen currently roaming in various parts of the country. “We have information that a meeting sat in Rwakitura in 2004 and a plan was hatched to ensure that the Balaalo occupy land everywhere in the country and guarantee their stay by drafting a law but all this brings no good to this country except fuelling tension,” he said.
The draft policy seeks among other things, to amend Article 237 of the constitution to provide that all land belongs to the government and not citizens. It also seeks to enable tenants by occupancy to acquire titles regardless of how they entered or began occupying the land. It also aims at replacing the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) and District Land Boards with Community Land Boards, Community Land Tribunals and the Uganda Land Authority, which would control all the land in Uganda.
Section 31 of the Land Act 1998: The draft law proposes that where the land boards have not determined annual ground rent, the minister of lands may determine it and shall be paid not immediately but within two years. But Mengo’s attorney general, Apollo Makubuya says, “Politicisation of ground rent, reduction of role of land boards and giving tenant long time to pay-to the detriment of landlords would create more havoc than sanity.”
Section 33: Where a tenant applies for a certificate of occupancy from the landlord and the land committee determines that the certificate be issued but the latter does not within six months grant the consent, then the tenant shall instead of appealing to the land tribunal, appeal to the minister of Lands who shall grant the consent and the certificate shall be endorsed on the landlords certificate of titles by the registrar.
“More protection given to the tenants than the landlords is likely to create more conflicts on land between landlords and tenants. And also financial institutions are likely to be confused to lend money on basis of titles with competing interests,” said Makubuya.
Section 43: States that a tenant by occupancy may assign, sublet or subdivide the tenancy with the consent of the owner but where the latter refuses, the tenant instead of appealing to the Land Tribunal, may appeal to the Lands Minister. Effectively, this would erode the registered owners’ power, ownership and control over land and vests all the powers with the ministry.
Section 35: The landowner who wishes to sell his interests in land shall give the first option of buying to the tenant. And where the owner sells without giving the tenant the first option to buy, then that sale is invalid and the registrar will not make a transfer in that regard. The tenant has three months to refuse or commence negotiations. After that, he/she has another three months to negotiate or refer the matter to a mediator’s who may give the parties another three months to negotiate.
Section 41 a: Is a new innovation where tenants would only be evicted for non-payment of ground rent and upon an order of eviction issued by Court. If a court gives an eviction order, it shall give the tenant not less than six months to vacate the land. A person who attempts to evict or participate in the eviction of a lawful or bonafide occupant from registered land without a court order is liable for imprisonment not exceeding seven years. The Buganda Lukiiko resolved at a recent sitting to reject the proposed amendment of the Land Act 1998 saying it was designed to deprive the Kabaka and landlords of their land rights over land.
When contacted, the kingdom's attorney general Mr Apollo Makubuya said the new amendments aims at depriving landlords of the right to own any property without due compensation.
He says there now appears to be a systematic effort to deny the return of all the land that was confiscated by Milton Obote I’s government and create a situation where registered proprietors of land in Buganda lose their ownership to so called ‘ bona fide occupants’ ‘lawful tenants’ or ‘peasants’.
Makubuya says the proposed amendments were based on politics pursued by this government on land since 1986. “In 1993, the government passed the Traditional Rulers (Restitution of Assets and Properties) Statute 1993, where it aimed to return assets and properties confiscated by the state to traditional rulers.
In the case of Buganda, the land that was confiscated by Obote’s government was over 10,000 sq. miles. Of this, only approximately 400 sq. miles have been returned so far. Needless to say, that the returned land is heavily populated by the so-called bona fide tenants.
“The bulk of Buganda’s land remains in the hands of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) and the District Land Boards. The ULC and the district Land Boards continue to lease and grant free hold titles on the said land even as we speak. Some of this land is being used to resettle groups of communities, particularly the Balaalo,” said Makubuya.
“The proposed law will make it impossible to dislodge the new settlers. Districts that occupy premises on Buganda’s confiscated land such as county headquarters each with 8 square miles do not pay a single penny for the utilisation of that land since 1967. “The draft land law is silent on compensation to Buganda.”
“It is also silent on the mechanism and duration of negotiations of the return of these properties. It is now 14 years and we are waiting for the beginning of the negotiations on the kingdom’s property and land (Ebyaffe).”
He said when the Land Act 1998 was passed and lawful or bona fide occupants were granted security of tenure over the land in which they were supposed to get certificates of occupancy but it was never implemented, the same law also fixed the rent payment by lawful or bonafide occupants at Shs1, 000 irrespective of the location, size, value, or user of the land.
In contrast to the traditional Rulers Statute 1993 under the expropriated Properties Act, the government returned all properties that were expropriated by Idi Amin regime and compensated others for the same.
“We have no problem with the Asians receiving their properties but why does government discriminate between Baganda and other communities and also pretend to care much about peasants in some case and not others?” he said. He said no consultations had been made with the relevant stakeholders especially landlords and tenants. “Why the rush and who is agitating for the said changes?
Why doesn’t government use the same speed in addressing Buganda’s long-standing land grievances? Makubuya said the law was part of the grand scheme to grab land in Buganda and weaken the Kabaka and cause instability and tension between Landlords and tenants.
In other words, what Obote achieved in stealing Buganda land with the use of the gun, this current regime is achieving the same with the use of politics and law.”
Makubuya said ever since the Shs1,000 annual minimal ground rent was passed, the income from land to the Kabaka and Buganda landlords has fallen dramatically. This literally crippled the financing of Buganda’s programmes for development and has exposed the king and other landowners to financial doldrums.
There must be some people who are pleased with this reality.” He said the protection of tenants under the proposed new law was only superficial because they were going to remain insecure and in future the injustice would be reversed.
“The tenants should not be deluded to believe that this law will give them economic emancipation through bank loans. In effect, the banks will not touch their titles.”
Makubuya said the government was openly playing the politics of divide and rule because it purports to support tenants and at the same time suppress rights of landlords. “Instead, in a typical Machiavelli style, the government seeks to champion the rights of peasants in an unfair way. This way, it will have the peasants fighting the landlords and vice-versa. This is a recipe for wars. The principal beneficiary of the confusion and conflict can only be the present ruling class.
Needless to say, the country does not benefit from this situation at all.” Mengo sticks by Lukiiko’s decision and will not be diverted by any wave, Makubuya said. “We can’t take legal actions against the government when it’s still a proposal but if government insists, the Lukkiiko will decide the next direction,” Makubuya said.
But according to Atubo, the cardinal objective of the bill is to enhance the protection of lawful and bona fide occupants and peasants from rampant evictions from registered land. He said that the law does not favour the Balaalo because even the existing land act outlaws their uncontrolled movements.
“Its very clear in section 92 of the current land act that any person who wrongly occupies land belonging to another person commits an offence and has to pay Shs500,000 or face six months imprisonment and has to return that land,” Atubo said. He admitted that government had taken long to solve the land issue and said it had tainted government’s reputation.
He advised government critics on this law to submit their ideas other than criticising government. On genocide, Atubo said critics of the proposed land policy should stop inciting the public.
The government has repeatedly asked Mengo to accept the regional tier in its present form so that it may return the land that was confiscated in 1966. The government contends that since there is no legal government in Mengo, there is no body to whom it can return the land to. Recently, President Museveni in his speech to mark Uganda’s 45th Independence, said government needed to quickly pass a law that forbids evictions of tenants from land and restricts the Judiciary from being ‘tempted’ to interfere in land matters.
According to the proposed law, a person who attempts to evict or participates in the eviction of a lawful or bona fide occupant from registered land without a court order is liable for imprisonment not exceeding seven years. The debate over the proposed amendment to the Land Act comes after the government dropped plans to transform Mailo land into Freehold.
The announcement was recently made by Prime Minister Prof. Apollo Nsibambi who said the government abandoned the proposal after studying a number of issues, including a rejection of the idea by Buganda Kingdom.
In August, government dropped plans to transform Mailo land into Freehold following Buganda’s strong resistance to the idea.
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