Dorcas Okalany
In 2023, the Lands ministry set out to ensure customary land owners in Acholi Sub-region benefit from the implementation of the Parish to Market Initiative that seeks to bring about socio-economic transformation .
Our technical teams discovered that although the customary owners in the sub-region owned land under various categories, including clans, sub-clans and families, some unscrupulous persons, with connivance of the local government land management institutions had submitted application forms seeking to be registered as owners of land belonging to the various groups where the initiative was to be implemented.
On receipt of these complaints from the customary landowners, technical teams from the Lands ministry visited the sub-region.
In Gulu the team listened to the stakeholders, in order to resolve the complaints. Agago LC V Chairman Opio Leonard Ojok Aleo raised concerns on behalf of the Omiya Pacwa clans and urged the ministry to roll out the customary land registration interventions piloted by the government, the European Union and UNCDF under the Development Initiatives in Northern Uganda (DINU) - Land Component in sub counties of Paimol and Wol in Agago
The ministry’s interventions under DINU-Land component included registering customary land for families and clans in the two sub-counties; and constructing and equipping two sub-county land registries, each built at a cost of Shs75 million, to handle and store customary land titles as provided for in section 68 of the Land Act and Regulation 41 of the Land Regulations, 2004.
The sub-county customary registries are critical in spurring economic development and growth of the local government economies.
The pilot activities implemented under DINU-Land Component opened sustainable opportunities for local governments to generate local revenue and stamp duty from the registration of first and subsequent transactions on customary land.
Even area land committees and the recorders that had no offices within which to offer land services and store government records have been provided office space and tools to enhance the registration of customary land transactions.
That is why the customary landowners through the Agago District leaders called for a roll out of the same intervention to all sub counties in the lower local governments, because of the confidence and trust in the government, which it brought back.
The registration has boosted the engagements of clans and families to prepare themselves to be part of the Parish to Market Initiative. More than100 clans (Kaka) and sub-clans (dogola) have submitted applications to incorporate them as legal entities and process customary titles for them.
Once the certificates are issued, leases will be created out of the Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCOs).
The leases will have conditions restricting the investors from using the leasehold titles as collateral, so that in case the investors secure loans and fail to pay back, the customary land shall not be lost.
There have been several petitions to the President and Parliament but the Lands ministry assures the country of involvement of both the traditional and political leaders in these government interventions.
The government pledges to continue looking for partners to jointly train and equip the sub-county land management institutions on land administration and registration processes under the customary tenure system; facilitate communities to form communal land associations, and to enable them to register their customary land; facilitate the owners to survey their customary land in order to issue the CCOs.
The ministry will also facilitate the registered customary land owners and the private investors to enter into lease agreements and formalise their engagement with the office of the Recorder (jaago). Section 8 of the land Act is clear that any land transactions done on customary land that are not known by the recorder are null and void.
Let us, therefore, embrace the government’s plans to secure customary land and cause transformation in the Acholi Sub-region and the country at large.
Ms Okalany is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
