Kaabong clans granted customary land titles

Under the Land Act, customary land is owned communally, by a clan, or a tribe, among others.

Ministry of Lands spokesperson Denis Obbo explains that the registration of clans under the competitiveness & Enterprise Development Project (CEDP) will enable more than 100 clans and sub-clans to assert their rights against competing land claims.

He says the clan elders will be in position to put their land to productive use without eviction threats since the titles are legally binding.

Most land in Karamoja Sub-region is communally owned making it hard to identify the rightful owners.

Land injustices
Communities in the area have continued to suffer land injustices that will be addressed when all clans that eke a living on this land through grazing and farming are handed customary land titles, according to Mr Obbo.

“With vast majority of land in rural Karamoja being held communally under customary tenure, most of it lacks formal documentation, and makes it difficult to prevent indiscriminate appropriation of ancestral land of communities by individuals or corporate institutions under the guise of investment and resultant conflict,” Mr Obbo explains.

He confirms that the programme has seen the same clans with their members registered twice both in Kaabong East and Kaabong West counties.

The titles will be handed over to the clan leaders on August 29, 2018 by the President during the Ngakarimong Cultural Day in Kaabong.

“The customary land titles have been formalised from the local land courts, courts of law and at the ministry of Lands as binding documents,” he says.

Mr Obbo adds that the information about this customary land titles will be archived right from the sub-county level, district and at the Lands registry.

“We hope this will be justice enough to the people of Kaabong whose sense of livelihood is in danger by mining firms,” he says.

Mr Daniel Lokwang, a resident of Kalongor Village in Kaabong East Sub-county says land injustices in Karamoja Sub-region should be investigated to its logical conclusion since they are a threat to people’s lives.

“True Karamoja climate is hostile but the green belts next to Kidepo Game Park, at Timu in Kamion Sub-county, where the Ik (Karamoja’s original tribe) people reside and make their living through farming are being threatened. Those displaced from those zones are now confined in seriously rocky places which are not viable for farming,” he says.

“I am grateful that this project is coming to ultimately accord us the right of land ownership, right to sue, be sued and to be compensated, which has not been the case before,” he affirms.

Mr Lokwang adds that from Loyoro towards Timu in Kaabong East, the land has been restricted to people, yet this spots from time immemorial was for farming.

“Some people outside Karamoja have secured land here, by taking advantage of poverty stricken people,” he adds.

The Kaabong District chairperson, Mr Mark Abuku, says the programme should be extended to the rest of Karamoja, saying the land injustices in Kaabong are not restricted to the district but also other districts in the sub-region.

He adds that this will be the best control mechanism for outsiders who have been illegally targeting land in the area.

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