Mailo tenure system affecting Buganda's investor-community relations - report

The on-going implementation of the Investor compliance monitoring tool (ICMT) has revealed that the Mailo land system in central Uganda is among the major factors that are contributing to the bad relationship between investors and communities they invest in.

The tool which is being implemented under the Responsible Governance of Investments in Land (RGIL) project indicates that the central region is the only region with much wrangles between investors and communities because they acquire land from landlords without the knowledge of tenants.

While presenting the status update of the on-going implementation of the tool in Kampala on June 16, Richard Katende, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at GIZ’s RGIL project said the bad relationship between landlords and bonafide tenants is affecting the rate of acceptability of different investments by the communities leading to either their failure or wars.

“Majority of the landlords and tenants are ignorant about their rights and you will find that when an investor is okayed for example by the landlord, he will face resistance in the community and sometimes he tries to use his money to forcefully influence them which leads to resistance,” he observed.

“Sometimes the investor himself will fear to bring investment to the area once he realises that his investment will not be safe and all this is because of the land tenure system. Other areas are okay,” he added.

About 3 years ago, ICMT was developed and rolled out by the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) in partnership with GIZ, with an aim of promoting Responsible governance of investments in land in Uganda.

It is being implemented by GIZ and PELUM in partnership with different MDAs including the ministry of local government, lands and urban development and agriculture, animal industry and fisheries.

The tool measures the investors’ compliance in the major areas of land acquisition, food security, water management, documentation, and gender inclusion.

Currently, it is being implemented in the districts of Mubende, Kasanda and Gomba in central, Soroti and Kapelbyong in eastern Uganda and Dokolo in Acholi sub region.

“We have in the last three years assessed 102 investors across all districts but Soroti is performing highly because they are complying excellently in all areas,” Katende said.

Moses Onen, the Advocacy officer at Pelum Uganda said that investors especially in agriculture are abusing the rights of the community and therefore the need for a performance tool that must check them.

“Commercial investments in agriculture and forestry are increasingly exerting pressure on land as a resource. These investments can lead to loss of access to land, conflicts and forced evictions, thereby restricting and preventing inclusive and sustainable development pathways. Commitments have been made for sound land governance, but there are still considerable challenges for its implementation,” he said.

Mr Chariton Namuwoza, the executive director of the: the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) said that the tool is increasingly helping them to assess the investors especially those venturing in agriculture.