Government mulls buying land from landlords

KAMPALA-The Lands ministry yesterday set up two ad hoc committees to deal with the problem of illegal land evictions across the country.
One of the committees will draw up a framework of stopping the wide spread land evictions in the country with the view of buying off idle land from landlords with squatters and another committee will document and demarcate all public land.

Ms Betty Amongi, the Lands minister, told journalists at the Media Centre that the mandate of the committee on land evictions also includes creation of public awareness about tenancy rights and dealing with unscrupulous landlords who connive with law enforcement officers to unlawfully evict bibanja holders. The committee will be chaired by the Lands State minister, Persis Namuganza.

“The findings of the committee will serve as a precursor to future policy formulation,” Ms Amongi revealed.
“The process will also include valuation of land held by bibanja holders so that we can use the Land Fund to allow government buy it from the landlords,” she added.

During the committee’s scope of work, all districts will be required to submit lists of bibanja owners. She said the documentation will help government monitor and engage the landlords in case they are evicting squatters.
So far, only Nakasongola District has submitted a list of names of all landlords, Ms Amongi added.
She said the committee will concentrate in the central region where there are numerous conflicts over land and will work closely with the Buganda Land Boardv—the custodian of all Buganda Kindom/mailo land.

The Land Act (CAP 227) recognises the legal rights of persons who lawfully occupy land under customary land tenure. Section 31 of the Act legalises dealings between such clients and their landlords while section 34 creates rights for the said tenants such as the right to inherit the occupancy which created under Section 34. The committee on documenting public/government land will be chaired by the State Minister for Housing, Chris Baryomunsi.

The terms of references of this committee, Ms Amongi said, is to determine the extent of public land through compiling a comprehensive government land inventory and determining the boundaries of individual holdings of government/public land through overseeing the adjudication, demarcation and titling of such land.

The committee, she added, will also advise on management and reclamation of encroached land as well as work closely with the embattled Uganda Land Commission to survey and retitle all government land.

To effect this, Ms Amongi, said they had suspended for three months any issuance of land titles by either the ministry or Lands commission except where Cabinet or President Museveni deems it necessary for investment purposes.

On the proposed amendment of the Land Act 1998 to ease taking over of private land for development projects and compensate later, Ms Amongi said the public had misunderstood the proposal.

“We are going to amend only Article 26 of the Constitution to invoke clause (3) which indicates that where the chief government valuer has agreed to a certain value of a private land but which the owner is not satisfied with, the government shall deposit the payment with court pending resolution of the matter,” she noted.

Article 26(2) stipulates that: “No Person Shall be compulsorily deprived of property or any interest in right over property of any description except where the taking possession is necessary for public use and or is made under the law after prompt payment of fair and adequate compensation. By depositing the money with court, Ms Amongi, said this shall be regarded as prior payment as clause (2) of Article 26 provides.

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