Land administration needs urgent cure

The Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led land probe found many irregularities in land administration, leading them to recommend the formation of a Land Ombudsman, a national land bank and reinstatement of district land tribunals.

The report handed to President Museveni in July 2020 also recommended the establishment of an institutional framework for administration of customary land within Uganda Land Services Bureau framework.

What has become clear from the escalating land conflicts is that a common position is required on who handles land disputes. There are multiple forces getting involved in and obstructing each other in an attempt to deliver land justice.

As a result, affected parties have fallen prey to unscrupulous individuals and ended up spending astronomical amounts of money in costs as they move from office to office looking for an effective and lasting solution to their land problems.

Many have lost their properties in the bureaucracy or between several offices. 

Everyone from the police, courts of law, appointees in Presidential land offices, resident district commissioners and any number of others often become involved in a single case, leading to contradictions and confusion as the public seems lost in the maze of people and institutions that wield clout in land matters. 

It is thus not unheard of for court orders to be disregarded as parties in land disputes bring in security to oversee forced evictions or stand guard over disputed parcels of land. 

Other parties in land disputes have lost their lives in the ensuing chaos. Conflicts have engulfed institutions and communities, leaving many stranded, confused and at a loss.

Before one can begin to examine the intricacies of our land tenure systems, there is a need to clear the mess in the arbitration system. 

Land claimants have often found that they are holding different versions of land documents for the same parcel of land, bringing into question even the issuing authorities and the administration of land offices. 

This is only further complicated when members of the public are not sure who is going to determine the authenticity of their claims. 

It is very telling when in one case, some parties are talking to the police, others are having a hard time talking to the police and consulting the President’s office instead. There is a need to bring order to land administration.