National Land Policy

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This is Draft 4 of the National Land Policy, issued in September 2009. It consolidates and synchronizes views and opinions received on Draft 3, issued in 2007. Draft 3 was subjected to comprehensive and participatory countrywide stakeholder consultations through ten (10) Regional Consultative Workshops, which covered all the districts of Uganda, and several Special Interest Groups Consultative Workshops and other consultative exchanges. Draft 4 is a combined outcome of all consultations which have taken place, on the National Land Policy, to date. Additionally, views expressed in written memoranda and other submissions received from the public in general, and specific special interest groups (in particular) have been incorporated.

Land is a highly volatile and political issue. In Uganda, land continues to be a critical factor, as it is the most essential pillar of human existence and national development. Uganda has never had a clearly defined and / or consolidated National Land Policy since the advent of colonialism in the nineteenth century. This policy, therefore, seeks to consolidate a number of scattered policies, which do exist on various aspects of the land question, but are diverse, sectoral and inconclusive in many respects. Additionally, efforts have been made to offer politically and socially acceptable and technically feasible solutions to Uganda’s land question, which has defied legislative norms over the years.

The land question in Uganda has origins in the legacy of colonialism, wherein historical injustices deprived communities of their ancestral lands. The result is legal dualism in the property system, a multiplicity of tenure regimes, multiple rights and interests overlapping in the same piece of land, and a heritage of evictions, arbitrary dispossession, land disputes and conflicts. The phenomenon of land disputes and conflicts have broken across national boundaries, spread to tribal and ethnic groupings, and merged with contemporary phenomena such as the discovery of extensive deposits of mineral wealth to generate overwhelming uncertainties in land rights resulting in tenure insecurity. In addition, land rights of vulnerable groups and land resource-dependent communities are either inadequately protected or poorly enforced. As if to aggregate the situation, land dispute resolution mechanisms have broken down and land justice has become a nightmare to many to land holders.

In the current era, Uganda has to face the challenges of a rapidly growing population by devising means to relieve pressure and competition over scarce land resources. Such an objective would not be elusive to attain if land management was premised on a policy paradigm emphasizing sustainable and productive land use and development. However, no such policy direction is in place. Thus, land resources have been chronically under-utilized and inefficiently managed. In the past, the Government has demonstrated continued and selective arbitrariness, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the exercise of trustee powers over public land, government land, and public trust natural resources. Lastly, land administration is bedeviled by corruption, is inadequately resourced, and is performing very poorly in service delivery. As performance standards are eroded, the public is slowly losing confidence in the entire land administration system, which is increasingly becoming moribund and dysfunctional. The entire land sector is, therefore, in dire need of urgent reforms.

To address these problems, the Government embarked on the process of formulation of a National Land Policy, through a widely consultative process. The vision of the policy is: “A reformed land sector contributing to the transformation of Uganda from a subsistence – agrarian economy to a modern economy within 30 years”. The goal of the policy is to: “ensure the sustainable utilization and management of Uganda’s land resources for wealth creation, poverty reduction and overall socio-economic development”.

Policy proposals in this draft of the National Land Policy, among other things, seek to re-orient the land sector in national development by articulating, management co-ordination between the land sector and other productive sectors to enhance the contribution of the sector to social and economic development of the country. The policy proposes a bifocal emphasis on ownership of land and land use for orderly land development. It stipulates incentives for sustainable and productive use, as well as fiscal measures to achieve the land management and land development objectives.

Issues connected to lack of clarity and certainty of land rights in all the tenure regimes by proposing measures to disentangle the multiple overlapping and conflicting rights over registered land, have been squarely addressed in this policy. Historical land injustices which led to loss of land rights by certain communities and vulnerable groups have been singled out for negotiation and restitution where necessary. The draft policy has also addressed the complexity and ambiguity in the constitutional and legal framework, governing the land relations between the Government and the citizens (who are the owners of all land in Uganda). It is, thus, proposed that citizens exercise their residual authority over land collectively through the Parliament. It is further proposed that Government should hold and manage public land, government land and public trust natural resources in strict conformity with the generally acceptable principles of the public trust doctrine.

This draft policy also proposes measures to overhaul the moribund and dysfunctional land administration and land management system and structures through the creation of a National Land Agency or Authority and thus, divesting most of the land administration functions. Essential reforms for stemming off escalating land conflicts and land evictions have necessitated a recommendation for re-institution of Land Tribunals and creation of a special division in the Magistrates Courts, and the High Court, for handling land disputes. Additionally, pressure for resolution of disputes will be relieved by the formal acceptance of the dual operation of both customary system and statutory system in land rights administration, land dispute resolution and land management by legally empowering customary authorities to perform these functions.

Under this policy, the Ministry responsible for lands will continue to perform residual roles including policy formulation and implementation, resource mobilization, standard setting and quality control, and monitoring and evaluation. Implementation of the Land Policy requires building of in-house capacity. It is proposed that the National Land Policy Secretariat be transformed into the Land Reform Unit to plan and implement the proposed measures and interventions working in partnership with all other stakeholders.

By way structural contents, Chapter 1 presents the Introduction; Chapter 2 gives the Conceptual Framework for the Land Policy while Chapter 3 covers the Constitutional and Legal Framework. Chapter 4 presents the Land Tenure Framework; Chapter 5 the Land Rights Administration Framework while Chapter 6 covers the Land Use and Management Framework. Chapter 7 overviews the Regional and International Framework for management of land and land-related issues while Chapter 7 outlines the Framework for Implementation of the Land Policy.