By Spy Uganda
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Judith Nabakooba yesterday handed over 4000 customary land titles to a couple of families in Northern Uganda.
Minister Nabakooba revealed that the government under the current manifesto pledged to process and give land owners legal documentation in terms of land titles.
She says, “The above is the basis for processing 4,006 customary titles for families in the Greater Northern Uganda. More customary titles are to be processed by Government, targeting the registration 275,000 families, 630 clans and indigenous and vulnerable communities within the next 2 years.”
She added; “Our target shall be to reach out to land owners in 35 districts in the country. This is the best way to secure customary ownership rights and thereby prevent public outcry, including stopping the abuse, stealing or grabbing of customary land by unscrupulous individuals, speculators and land dealers.”
Nabakooba commended leaders’ support mentioning the Apac Woman MP Hon Betty Engola for mobilizing the people in Apac to accept the Government program, “to the extent that she articulated to our people, the benefits of land registration which would stop ‘Mayo Lobo’ (Land grabbing) and ‘Laro lobo’ (Land disputes)”.
“Because of this achievement ‘Kuchi’ (Peace) has returned. I am informed that families and communities have began to engage in producing surplus food for sale, including growing Palm trees, Soya Beans, cotton and sunflower among others, knowing that no one will destroy their cash crops through acts of illegal land evictions and destruction of their investments on land,” she said.
Nabakooba said that the total number of beneficiaries from Apac district is 6,393 of which 3,943 (62%) are male and 2,450 (38%) are female.
The average acreage or land holding for families Apac district is 4.8 acres, in Maracha it is 2 acres; while in Agago it was 8 acres.
“The act of registering customary land has moved many of the beneficiaries from the subsistence economy to the market economy where they can now use their customary land titles to help them create wealth and break out of poverty,” she said.
She said the mapping of parcels has used both traditional and scientific methods of demarcation.
“Even if the traditional boundary markers are uprooted or shifted, it is easy to re-trace ones boundaries because the boundary coordinates have also been provided for each title, using SMART technologies,” Minister Nabakooba said.
The handover event of these titles to the wanainchi was graced by HE.Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who spoke against the culture of subdividing land among children especially when the owner dies, saying the practice cannot support commercial agriculture which is now the focus of Uganda’s economy as children will resort to selling off the land instead of collective investment.
“Now that you have got these titles, I want to point out to you one danger for Uganda as a whole. When the owner dies, there is the culture of subdividing the land; physical fragmentation of land is very dangerous for the development of the country. (lifetimesmilesbellevue.com) Because if the land is too small and you subdivide it among the children, in future they will have nowhere to cultivate,” the President said, citing areas of West Nile where the average land ownership in Maracha district is only two acres.
Apac now joins Kasese, Nwoya, Pader, Adjumani, Soroti, Katakwi, Butaleja, Kabale, Kisoro, Mbale, Dokolo and Amolatar districts in helping land owners to benefit from land registration using modern and scientific methods of securing their customary land rights and being able to prove their land ownership claims.
