A woman in her banana plantations that were cut due to land grabbing

Uganda relies heavily on agriculture, a sector that contributes nearly a quarter to it’s gross domestic product.

Just over two thirds of Ugandans earn their living from agriculture, most of whom engage in subsistence farming, meaning that land is at the core of their most valuable assets. However, complaints of farmers losing their land through dubious means risk creating a crisis for those whose only livelihood is agriculture.

Moses Kigenyi, a smallholder farmer from Namutumba district, said his land was forcefully taken over by some people who are highly-connected to some Government officials and this left him in a desperate situation of survival.

“My land was taken over by a group of individuals and when I decided to seek justice from relevant government agencies, I was arrested and detained at Namutumba Central police station for days. I had to pay for a police bond before I was released,” he said, with anguish.

Kigenyi said his land was taken over to pave way for sugarcane growing. Other smallholder farmers across the country have similar complaints.

LAND RIGHTS

Many people in Uganda are situated on customary land, where they don’t own land titles. The lack of titles has exposed them to land grabbers. In Uganda, most of the nationals are on customary / family land which is not secure to them since majority have not titled their land to obtain land titles that would protect them from land grabbers.

Tony Ssendawula, the Local Council 111 chairperson of Butayunja sub-county in Mityana district, explained that “some rich people have evicted marginalized communities using both force and legal documents.”

Article 237 of the Ugandan Constitution, 1995, states that land belongs to its citizens. This makes Uganda one of the few African countries that vests power over land on its people.

‘‘The provision protects us as smallholder farmers because it creates space for land security. However, some so-called connected people are violating the terms of the constitution” Rose Nalubega, a paralegal officer in Kiganda town council, Kassanda district, said.

She added that where land has been legally taken away by government and the investors, there has been a tendency of the new landowners blocking communities from accessing certain roads and also denying farmers to access water points.

In the end, this has created negative sentiments from the community towards the project.

“For example, a senior army officer bought a big chunk of land, on part of which government had constructed a water dam for the community to enable them access water for livestock and watering crops during the dry season. However, after acquiring the land, the officer denied the community from accessing the water point,’’ Nalubega said.

Hakim Baliraine, the vice chairperson of Eastern and Southern African Farmers Forum, said foreigners have more land rights than the local communities in the region. According to him, this has supported the development of sugarcane farming in the Busoga region, thus affecting food crop production.

“It is true farmers have encroached on swamps and wetlands, which is against the laws of Uganda but our government should treat all the sector players fairly. The Chinese have been allowed to extract development minerals such as sand and growing crops such as rice. However, the local communities are being evicted. The same legal regime should be applied to everyone,’’ he said.

Dennis Obbo, the ministry of Lands spokesperson, said that farmers occupying unregistered customary lands should endeavor to formalise their ownership to protect themselves from land grabbers.

“We want to appeal to the general public to ensure that all their lands are registered with the ministry of Lands. We are receiving a lot of complaints from the public about their land being grabbed,” he said.

To ensure that the marginalized communities are protected from land grabbers, Obbo said the government has received some financial support from the World Bank, which the ministry will use in supporting activities of creating a land registry in some parts of the country.

“We are aware of the problem but soon it will be solved with the support from World Bank. The government will be titling all communal lands in selected parts of the country,” he added.

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