LAND POLICY FORMULATION AND CONSULTATIVE PROCESS

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48.The Government of Uganda initiated the process for development of the National Land Policy in 1983 under the Agricultural Policy Committee of the Agricultural Secretariat in the central Bank of Uganda. It noted that successful policy on land is that which recognizes how traditional land tenure has evolved and guides future evolution by encouraging changes that are beneficial and preventing changes that are harmful.

49.Appointment of the Constitutional Review Commission, in 1988, more popularly known as the Odoki Commission, surpassed the work of the Agricultural Policy Committee. It made broad recommendations for constitutional reforms, which lay firm policy principles regarding what constitutes a good land tenure policy in Uganda. The most fundamental of changes out of the work of the Odoki Commission is enshrined in Article 237 (1) of the 1995 Constitution, which, in break from the past, declared land to belong to the citizens of Uganda, making Uganda the first State in Sub-Saharan? Africa to vest its “radical title” in its Citizens. Extensive changes were also introduced in land administration and land dispute resolution.

50.The 1998 Land Act, legislatively actualized most of the reforms provided for in the 1995 Constitution, while the Land Sector Strategic Plan (LSSP) 2001-2011 provided the implementation framework for execution of sector wide reforms in the land sector. One of the strategic objectives under LSSP was the development of a national land policy to serve as a systematic frame work for addressing the role of land in national development, land ownership, distribution, utilization, alienability, management and control.

51.In 2001, a National Land Policy Working Group (NLPWG) was instituted under the Ministry responsible for lands to steer the policy-making process. The NLPWG produced an Issues Paper for the National Land Policy in 2002. Simultaneously, the Government of Uganda also published the Constitutional Review Report by Ssempebwa Commission in 2003, which intensely implored, the adoption of a comprehensive land policy to harmonize the diverse needs for human settlement, production and conservation, by adopting best practice in land utilization for purposes of growth in the agricultural, industrial, and technological sectors taking into account population trends, without losing control over the structuring of land tenure systems.

52.Taking note of the opinions of the Odoki Commission, the Ssempebwa Commission, the first draft of the National Land Policy was produced in 2005, circulated and discussed amongst the NLPWG and professionals in the land sector. The same was subsequently progressed into a Draft Three, which was circulated for public debate and structured consultations in 2006. Consultations, aimed to obtain stakeholder inputs and consensus, on basis of Draft Three of the National Land Policy were carried out. Memoranda and submissions were received from various institutions, including civil society organizations and Ugandans in the diaspora. Government agencies, charged with regulation of land use and planning, and departments responsible for enforcement of land laws, and the maintenance of law and order, were also consulted.

53.While consultations were still on-going, the Government of Uganda gazetted the Land Act (Amendment) Bill 2007 as a stop-gap measure to curb escalating land conflicts and evictions due to public outcry on land grabbing, forceful evictions and grave associated crimes. The Bill drew extensive public comments from various parts of the country, and was wrongly viewed as a scheme to grab land.