The Buganda Kingdom Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga has revealed that the rot in Uganda Police Force an emerging corruption in land courts are one of the major causes of the continuous land disputes in Uganda.
Speaking during the ongoing celebrations of the 27th coronation of Buganda King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II on Thursday, Mayiga said that Buganda is the most affected part in Uganda as far as land disputes are concerned but the institutions headed by government have somehow failed to play their roles to prevent problem.
Currently, the land sector in Uganda faces several challenges that include insecurity of tenure, overlapping and conflicting land rights, glaring inequity in access to and ownership of land. However, Mayiga said that if police and the courts were working at their maximum, such challenges would at least not be as bad as it is today.
“In Uganda, there are many challenges that have caused land disputes, however, I can mention out the major six and the first two are very crucial. The decadence in Uganda Police, Police has been facilitated by land grabbers, case files on land have failed to reach the court,” he said.
“The land courts are also full of corruption, land grabbers realised that they can bribe the courts to delay the cases. Another challenge is the land offices that publish out land titles. How can one piece of land be with three land titles fully authenticated by land commission? there must be a problem there, either the thieves are inside the offices.”
He also explained that also the population pressure on the land is another challenge, that is why the government should encourage people to embrace modern farming and also at least rear animals such cows, goats or pigs which will help to feed the land and its ecosystems.
“Some families have children who have also produced kids, so the land has been divided and it’s overdue, that is why modern farming can help us and it would have been a mandate for every family at least to have an animal, because the wastes of them help to keep the land systems healthy,” the Premier said.
The other challenges he mentioned was politics in land issues. “At times, Police and the courts would do their work diligently, and the court issues out the directive, however as soon it’s being put into practice then comes the other side sent by a politician or RDC, or office of the president and the order will not be put in practice at the end no justice achieved. Until we can solve these major six challenges land disputes in Uganda will never stop.”
On the question of why Buganda’s land is the most affected in Uganda, Mayiga said that because land in in the kingdom is on a higher market as compared to other places such as Gulu, Mbarara or Arua.
“It’s only in Buganda where you will find a plot of land costing over a billion shillings, secondly all government headquarters are found in Buganda. People have kept on asking what to do, but Buganda Katikiro doesn’t have Police, nor courts or offices of the land. Even when I was in the land committee of Lady Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, I told her that if such challenges are not settled, nothing will be done,” he said.
The celebrations of the coronations are ongoing and Friday will be the grand finale where King Mutebi will host some few visitors in his Mengo palace.
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