Prime
Clean land registers to end rampant wrangles
What you need to know:
- Succession to land. Before 1967, succession to land in central region was governed by the Succession Law of 1927. A successor was issued with a certificate of succession and, in most cases, no steps were taken to alienate the land.
Judging from newspaper reports and court cases, most of the land wrangles trace their origin to four things, namely, the absence of regulations to govern land relations, double titling, theft of land from the blue pages and abuse of former Crown land.
Section 93 of the Land Act provides: “The Minister may by statutory instrument with the approval of Parliament make regulations generally for better carrying into effect the provisions of this Act…
“The regulations made under this section may prescribe the procedure to be followed in the alienation of freehold and leasehold and the terms and conditions of any such grant…….”
The minister has not made these regulations, which has opened the door for malpractices, especially in the Uganda Land Commission as the case of Makerere University land, which was illegally given away, testify. Section 29 of the same Act defines the term “lawful occupant” to mean a person who came on the land under the repealed Busulu and Envujjo Law of 1928, a person who entered the land with the consent of the owner or whose customary tenancy was not disclosed at the time of acquiring a leasehold.
A census carried out in 1965 by the Buganda Economic Commission, showed that there were only 220,000 bibanja holders in the central region, majority of whom being people from a neighbouring country. Since the meaning of “repealed Busulu and Envujjo law” is not specified, anybody on the land, including trespassers referred to as “kibanja-holder” without even determining the size of the holding resulting in conflicts between landowners and land occupants.
Related to customary abuses of land occupation is double titling, which occurs when a second title deed is issued by the land office, notwithstanding the existence of a previously issued title deed or deeds. An example of this is the case of Njeru Stock Farm, which was sold to an unsuspecting senior minister, when there was already a mailo title as well as a leasehold title in favour of the government.
Before 1967, succession to land in central region was governed by the Succession Law of 1927. A successor was issued with a certificate of succession and, in most cases, no steps were taken to alienate the land. After 1967, interests comprised in such certificates, were registered in the land office on what is known as the blue page pending the survey and alienation of that land. A lot of this land has now been misappropriated leading to disputes with the rightful owners. An example is land comprised in Block 265, Bunamwaya, where nearly 90 per cent of the title deeds, are fraudulent.
The Crown Lands Ordinance turned all land in Uganda into public land vested in the British Crown to be managed by the Governor. After independence, Crown Land became public land to be managed by the minister in charge of Land.
Lack of controls has led to the disappearance of all public parks in Kampala and environmental degradation.
In order to cover up the frauds, a senior land officer in 2014, wrote to the prime minister advising the government that all the old registers were closed in the 1930s. However, section 7(3) of the Registrations of Titles Act provides “All land in any Final mailo certificates whenever issued... shall be deemed to have been registered under this Act……” Further, Section 32 provides, “When land has been brought under this Act… the register kept under the Registration of Land Titles Ordinance, 1908, shall be closed.
Unless these issues are addressed wrangles will continue to the detriment of the economy. The first steps should include the cleaning of the land registers.
