Cabinet approves land policy

The government hopes that the policy will solve land wrangles.

Kampala

After more than ten years of dilly-dallying, Cabinet has finally approved the National Land Policy. But unlike several other documents, the President is said to have had a tight grip on this particular policy whose major objective among others is to create long overdue sanity in land use and administration.

According to the Lands Minister, Mr Daudi Migereko, the President chaired all the meetings, including the final one last week where cabinet, under the watchful eyes of the President, carefully approved the policy. “Cabinet approved the Land Policy and it was chaired by the President himself. The land use policy was also passed,” said the lands minister last week at a function organized by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda on land information systems in Kampala.

It is understood that the President’s tight grip on the policy was to ensure that those around him—most of them big land owners and big business people—do not skew the policy in their favour. “The President made it clear from the very beginning that he is chairing these meetings because he is aware that some people (who are part of the meeting) are big land owners and others are businessmen who may not care about his peasants,” said a source that attended the meetings.

The source spoke in confidentiality because cabinet proceedings are not only confidential, but the source is also not the cabinet spokesperson.

By yesterday there was no reaction from different quarters, but when the Land Bill was passed in Parliament in 2009, Buganda Kingdom, which had provided the fiercest opposition, said it would not respect the legislation.

iladu@ug.nationmedia.com