Fight Buganda Land Board, Museveni tells NRM’s CEC

President Museveni has declared Buganda Land Board illegal and directed ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party mobilisers to fight the Mengo-based institution.

Mr Museveni’s communique is the latest in a drawn out battle with Buganda Kingdom on the question of land in the country’s largest traditional institution.
The President has always pushed for reforming land laws in the kingdom, a move that has met resistance from both the Mengo establishment and the Kabaka’s subjects.

In an 18-page “mobilisation” missive dated November 8 to all Central Executive Committee(CEC) members of NRM party, the President tasks them  to “identify the legitimate interests of the different groups of people,” which he says is the crux of mobilisation.
CEC which Mr Museveni chairs, is the second highest organ of the NRM party after the National Delegates Conference but makes most the key decisions in the party.

Directive
 “Resist land evictions for Bibanja owners and work for the emancipation of the Bibanja owners and compensation of the exploitative Mailo owner. Resist all schemes of okutemako (cut pieces from) of the Bibanja owners’ land or kyaapa mungalo (“leases” given by the illegal Buganda Land Board),” he writes.

Mr Museveni says leases were for the educated sometimes foreign, commercial producers using land, and cannot be for the Ugandans who have their homes (obutuuro) and graves of their ancestors on those lands. “That is why customary or freehold may be the only correct models for Ugandans. However, that ownership should be tied, in my opinion, with the obligations to use land as agreed with the state (farming etc).
Otherwise, he says, the hoarders of land should be penalised, somehow. If this is not done, the President adds, the people of Uganda will starve or be forced to kusaka (buying from others), while hoarders are sitting on the land of the country.

When contacted over the President’s statement last evening, Ms Linda Nabusayi, the senior presidential press secretary, said: “I don’t speak for the party, please get a comment from the NRM secretary general since he attended the meeting or the party spokesperson, Mr Emmanuel Dombo.”
 Mr Museveni’s statement echoes views of junior Lands minister Sam Mayanja of October 7, alleging that Buganda Land Board (BLB) is an illegal entity.

How BLB was formed
Buganda Land Board is established under the Company’s Act, 2012, whose sole shareholder is the Kabaka of Buganda. The Kabaka is a corporation sole under Article 246(3) of the Constitution of Uganda.
A corporation sole consists of a certain office that continues as a legal entity regardless of a human holder of that office. Therefore, a corporation sole is distinct from a human holder, that is, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II as an individual is a legal entity distinct from the Kabaka of Buganda, a corporation.

Under the same article, a corporation sole can own property both for itself and in trust for the people concerned. That is why it can sue, be sued and all rights of a legal person are bestowed upon it.
It is based on those provisions that the Kabaka (Obwakabaka) invoked provisions of Section 18 (3) of the Company’s Act, 2012, and incorporated Buganda Land Board.