Mistrust in govt slows free land registration

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has blamed the low registration of customary land across the country on mistrust in the government.

Whereas the government views registration and certification as a way of reducing land conflicts, the ministry said people instead think this is a ploy to grab their resource.

This was revealed by Mr Denis Obbo, the ministry of Lands spokesperson, in an interview with Daily Monitor last week.

Due to the mistrust, he said the government has instead resorted to dealing with the public indirectly through civil society organisations.

“When this government came into power from the very beginning, most customary land owners who had unregistered land felt that the government was going to grab it, they lost trust in the government and never wanted to deal with it,” Mr Obbo said.

“This is where the partnerships with NGOs help us because the population believes more in them. We got into partnerships with the NGOs where they are supposed to go to communities and sensitise them using information issued by the government,” he added. 

In 2015, the ministry, using NGOs, rolled out registration of customary land in the whole country starting from Kasese District. 

However, the registration uptake has remained low, according to Ms Frances Birungi Odong, the executive director of the Uganda Community Based Association for Women and Children Welfare (UCOBAC).

In early 2018, UCOBAC embarked on a land awareness and registration programme in Pader and Butaleja districts.

“While rallying people in Pader District, people wanted to register but many shied away due to politics and uncertainty that the exercise was a ploy to grab their land from them,” Ms Birungi said.

On Wednesday last week, the ministry of Lands through UCOBAC issued out 960 certificates of customary ownership to land owners in Pader.The event took place at Pader Sub-county headquarters.

The beneficiaries are part of the total 3,000 customary land owners that have benefitted from the free registration and issuance of customary land titles in the area.

At least 80 per cent of land in the country is under customary tenure, according to statistics by the Lands ministry.
 When UCOBAC visited Pader, it found a lot of violence, physical fights and disagreements among communities and families over land, Mr Federicko Ongwec, the Pader Sub-county land committee chairperson, said.

“... but since the communities embraced land registration, calm is slowly returning in these areas,” Mr Ongwec added.

Mr Fearless Obwoya, the district chairperson, said the certification exercise had significantly reduced the rate of land wrangles in the mapped areas.

“Where the certificates have been issued, the law enforcement agencies have testified that the land conflicts have reduced and people are now concentrating on production,” he said.