FIT-FOR-PURPOSE USER RIGHTS DOCUMENTATION: THE CASE OF PRIVATE MAILO LAND IN UGANDA
THORSTEN HUBER, MOSES MUSINGUZI, RESTY NAMULI, DANIEL KIRUMIRA
Central Uganda is characterized by the existence of Mailo Land Tenure System under which interests of registered owners are subject to unregistered occupancy rights of lawful and bona fide tenants. Mailo tenure is a feudal land tenure system originating from an agreement between the Buganda King and the British Government in 1900, which formalized the relationship between the Kingdom of Buganda and the Protectorate Government. Under the agreement, 1,003 square miles was allotted to the King, his family and the big chiefs, both in their political capacity and in private ownership, while 8,000 square miles were allotted to about 1,000 chiefs and other notables, with the discretion of the Lukiiko (The parliament of the Buganda Kingdom). During land allotment, the plight of peasants who had been occupying the land as peasant farmers and clan heads (bataka) were not discussed. As such, pre-existing interests of smallholder farmers, particularly land use rights were not legally recognized. More often than not, interests of registered owners and tenants over the same parcel of land often lead to disputes such as whether the claimant is bona fide or lawful occupant as defined in the law. The uncertainty on who is the rightful occupant on Mailo land has often led to losses arising out of fake land deals by unscrupulous people. Furthermore, the national land registry (Dept. of Land Registration) and the cadastral office (Dept. of Surveys and Mapping) hold information on registered Mailo owners, land sizes, boundaries and encumbrances. However, information on lawful and bona fide occupants is not stored and neither is it provided as part of search reports from the land offices. The burden of proof of occupancy rights is left to the purchaser, who must visit the land and make investigations on the history of ownership and occupancy rights. The confusion on Mailo tenure including land evictions, land losses and land conflicts has not only slowed down land development but has negatively impacted on the growth of a vibrant land market. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) created the Special Initiative “One World, No Hunger” aimed to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. A component of this project is currently being implemented in the Districts of Mityana and Mubende (Central Region) in Uganda. This project is co-funded by the European Union (EU). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to improved food security, improved livelihoods and poverty alleviation for small-scale farmers and other users of natural resources, in particular for women and marginalized groups in Central Uganda. The project includes components of capacity development, sensitization and mobilization of communities, alternative land dispute resolution, recordation and mapping of occupancy rights using Fit for Purpose Land Administration tools. Mapping and documentation of land rights is undertaken by a land inventory team comprised of members of Area Land Committees (ALC), village local councils and Land Inventory Assistants. The demarcation exercise in each village is undertaken after careful sensitization and awareness creation of both, landlords and tenants. The process of capturing and management of land rights data relies on open source software named “Cadastre Register Inventory Saving Paper” (CRISP) and QGIS. CRISP has been developed based on the Land Administration Domain Model (party, right, and parcel). The software has been adjusted to fit to the specific context and needs of private Mailo land tenure in Uganda. The project generates a Land Inventory Protocol (LIP) which is a non-legal, social evidence of the right to land as a first step to the recognition of tenants’ land rights. Captured user rights data will form the basis for increasing transparence over private Mailo land. At a later stage, it is planned that the captured occupancy rights data will be integrated into the National Land...
Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018
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