Government must refrain from alarming population with land proposals

What you need to know:

  • Lands minister Betty Amongi, who represents UPC in a loose coalition with the ruling [NRM] party, has assumed a very high profile in the post-election Cabinet.

The key ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development opposite Parliament House is a sleepy backwater of the traditional departments. The block it occupies has undergone changes in signage in its long history. It has given birth to the ministries of Energy and Minerals and Water and Environment both of which touch on specialised issues of land management.
Lands minister Betty Amongi, who represents UPC in a loose coalition with the ruling [NRM] party, has assumed a very high profile in the post-election Cabinet. She sent “difficult” officials in her ministry on leave, including the director of land administration, who for a long time presided as commissioner of titles. Complaints and claims swamped government alleging fraud in the conveyance and registration of titles. Master tricks allowed conveyances to be registered outside office hours, at Christmas and other public holidays. This is part of the mess that the Bamugemeire Commission is looking into. We already know that the epicentre of this problem is in Wakiso District, the largest district in the country in terms of population and covering most of the former East-Mengo District where 80 per cent of land transactions in Uganda are registered.
Inside the ministry, minister Amongi has been at war with her junior minister Persis Namuganza, a former independent candidate from Namayingo District, who arrived in Parliament with support of IGP Kale Kayihura after initially being harassed in the NRM primaries. Ms Namuganza’s style seems to no take fools gladly. She managed to draw the ire of her predecessor, Ms Idah Nantaba, another independent MP from Kayunga District and minister of State for ICT. Ms Nantaba’s tenure was dominated by wars on illegally acquired land and mass-land owners with large numbers of tenants in northern and northwestern Buganda. It may be a surprise for the current generation that Buweekula, Bulemezi and Bugerere counties were zoned in the 1960s for commercial agriculture. They had fertile large tracts of land that were lightly populated.
Two months ago, the minister announced that government will go ahead with proposals to amend the law governing public land, including Article 26 of the Constitution that regulates acquisition of private land in exercise of public domain. Government has been grappling with atrocious compensation claims, especially from developed mailo land owners, whose property values in the metro-capital region and urban areas have skyrocketed.
Of course, this rapid spiral has been “wind-aided” by government’s failure to follow the procedures in the Land Acquisition Act. The Office of the Chief Government Valuer (OCGV), which in a master trick was once inherited by the son of the former occupant, appoints private persons to handle claims by project affected persons “PAPs” creating opportunities to collude and inflate property claims.
The OCGV is supposed to prepare guidelines for compensation for the whole country, which are supposed to be public. Every area put up for compensation must have a statutory instrument stating the PAPs to be affected. No government body follows this. The services of these valuers have produced atrocious valuations in many cases, the most famous of which is a bare exposed rock in Busiro County along the Kampala-Entebbe expressway whose fair market value hit more than $4 million. Most of these emergencies are a political problem representing a breakdown of law and order.
In the Judiciary where some of these disputes belong, there are many complaints where judicial officers are accused of offering their services in return for a “share” of the affected land. The chaos in district land offices simply reflect the environment around them. These gentlemen are simply trying to benefit from the mailo-land windfall.
Recently, the minister acquired a police escort, which spirits her through Busiro South where she lives with her husband UPC president Jimmy Akena. Along her way home are gaping violations of the laws she is supposed to enforce, on use of road reserves. When UNRA does enforcement, it always leaves untouched gaping incursions on this road which has become ground zero for choking traffic jams. The answer to this is understanding the current laws before another chaos of legal jargon to excite the population.

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]