By Halima Athumani
KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - A Ugandan opposition party leader has accused the government of making plans to grab land of common citizens in the name of development.
In remarks made to journalists in Kasangati town in Wakiso district, located around 16.5 kilometers (around 10 kilometers) north of capital Kampala, Dr. Kizza Besigye, a former presidential candidate and founder of the Forum for Democratic Change Party, said: “There is a threat -- through a project championed by the World Bank -- of acceleration of land registration and titling of land.”
In September 2015, the World Bank had released a report titled “Searching for the ‘Grail’ - Can Uganda’s Land Support its Prosperity Drive?” in which the Country Manager, Christina Malmberg Calvo, blamed weak land management systems for constrained urban planning, which in turn raised the cost of infrastructure development in the country.
This was said to be worsened by the fact that most land was owned communally and by religious and cultural institutions, yet none of it was registered.
Approximately 20 percent of Uganda’s land is registered, which is higher than the average level of 10 percent for sub-Saharan African countries.
Besigye said that while the World Bank was floating an attractive idea for people to register land, it could also be used to get loans and commercialize agriculture in the country. “Our systems of land management are extremely weak at the moment and bedeviled with systemic corruption,” he said.
He brought attention to the northern belt in Acholi, Lango and Karamoja regions along the volatile border with Democratic Republic of Congo. “Most of this land has 30 to 50 percent of natural minerals, including gold and is held under customarily ownership.”
Last week, President Yoweri Museveni passed a resolution allowing the government to take over private land for national development projects like building roads. Betty Amongin, minister for lands, housing and urban development, said the amendment was needed because the current law allowing negotiations and compensation to landowners before the project took off allegedly slowed down government-run programs.
Meanwhile, the opposition leader said there must be a moratorium on land titling, especially in areas where land grabbing was rampant; he also demanded a review of the country’s land laws and a judicial inquiry into land grabbing.
Amongin told Anadolu Agency via phone that since 80 percent of Ugandans have no land titles, “you can’t utilize it effectively and the security of tenure is threatened when you can’t determine who owns the land.”
She clarified the World Bank supported the registration project particularly in the case of Karamoja, because there were groups and associations that wanted their land to be demarcated and registered.
When you register communal land in a clan name, it still remains a communal property. But with this registration, members can decide whether they want to mortgage for purpose of developing this land, because many people want to lease their land yet they have no documents, she said.
According to Amongin they are helping the community to understand that instead of using the land as a source of pride, they need to know they can earn out of this land. We are only facilitating them to register their land, whether they want to sell it or lease it out, it’s absolutely up to them, she added.