Prime
Buganda constitutes Mailo land committee
President Museveni meets Buganda Kingdom leaders in August 2021. PHOTO / FILE
What you need to know:
- The development comes after several efforts by the central government to scrap the Mailo land system, one of the four types of land ownership in Uganda. Others are freehold, leasehold, and customary.
Buganda Kingdom has set up a team of five people to oversee the Mailo land tenure system.
The development comes after several efforts by the central government to scrap the Mailo land system, one of the four types of land ownership in Uganda. Others are freehold, leasehold, and customary.
Government has repeatedly claimed the Mailo land tenure system has escalated land evictions but Mengo blames the evictions on the judicial system and politics.
While opening the 29th Lukiiko (parliament) in Mengo on Monday, Katikkiro (prime minister) Charles Peter Mayiga revealed that the committee constitutes members from the Buganda Land Board, Busiro East MP Medard Lubega Sseggona , and will be led by Mr David Mpanga, the kingdom minister for special duties.
“The responsibility of this committee is to review all the government proposals on Mailo land in Buganda so that citizens get to know what Mailo land means,” Mr Mayiga said.
The Katikkiro added that the committee will investigate all the proposals in regards to Mailo land and present a report to the Mengo establishment.
The kingdom spokesperson, Mr Noah Kiyimba, said government has not yet come out with the final decision on Mailo land.
“Currently Mailo land is not a problem in Buganda region but there are issues attached to the Mailo land that are causing problems to the Bibanja owners,” he said.
Mr Kiyimba said the backlog of land cases is also another major challenge .
“Mailo land has not even affected any development in the country because no one has been stopped from developing their land.
“Even in other regions people have it [land wrangles] although the biggest challenge is in central region,” he said.
Mr Mpanga said the committee was still carrying out investigations and they are expected to present their report in March. He added that the committee is required to find out how much land under the Buganda Kingdom is occupied by Bibanja holders and how many pay Busuulu.
“After making thorough research, the committee will present the report to the Cabinet and after to the Lukiiko so that the entire country gets to know the stand of Mailo land in Buganda Kingdom,” Mr Mpanga said.
President Museveni has on various occasions said Mailo land tenure is a historic injustice and has agitated for the scrapping of the system.
Mengo says the proposal to abolish the Mailo land tenure and fuse it with other tenures raises suspicion that the creation of the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire Commission was to target land tenure in Buganda and to ultimately abolish Mailo land in a manner similar to that of the previous regimes.
