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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has told the Land Inquiry Commission that the kingdom opposes abolition of the Mailo land tenure system. He said the Kingdom of Buganda actually recommends the reinstatement of a Federal system of governance so each area can manage its own affairs .
“The Kingdom of Buganda is apprehensive about the proposal to abolish the Mailo land tenure or to fuse it with other tenures into a single tenure,” Katikkiro (Prime Minister) Mayiga told the Land Commission headed by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire on Wednesday.
He was appearing to present Buganda’s views to a commission that recently issued an interim report that recommended among many reforms the “reduction of current land tenures from four to perhaps three; freehold, customary freehold and leasehold.”
The basic unit of the Mailo system is a square mile, hence the derivation of Mailo, which is also equivalent to 640 acres. The term is used in Uganda to describe the land tenure system that came into effect when the Kingdom of Buganda signed an agreement with the British-administered Uganda Protectorate in 1900.
Land in Buganda has been characterized by problems which many argue originates from Mailo land ownership.
The Katikkiro of Buganda however emphasized that the major causes of the current land disputes and wrangles are mainly attributed to weakness in police which fails to make follow ups on evidence reports yet the judiciary relies on them, weak land laws, limited judges in the judiciary and increase in the population and corruption among government officials, but not the Mailo land issue as most people think.
“Government should capitalize and use the Land Fund to liberate landless groups and remove the duplicity of ownership on Mailo land. We thus support the Commission’s recommendation that the Land Fund be purposefully capitalized and restructured to work effectively,” he told the commission.
“We add that the Fund should be utilized in a transparent and in an indiscriminative manner. It should also be used on the basis of a willing seller willing buyer as well as on the principles of fair and prompt compensation pursuant to S. 41(6) of the Land Act.”
He said, Buganda is also not convinced that it is necessary to acquire land without adequate and timely compensation to owners. “There are adequate laws and therefore no need for compulsory acquisition of land.”
Mayiga also warned that there is a perception that the commission is targeting the Kingdom and the Kabaka. “I know all of you here are decent people but that is the perception out there that you are here to take away what the Kingdom has.”
On December 8, 2016 the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni appointed a Commission of Inquiry into the Effectiveness of the Law, Policies and Processes of Land Acquisition, Land Administration, Land Management and Land Registration in Uganda (the Commission) headed by Bamugemereire. The Commission is required to make recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the law, policies, and processes of land acquisition, land administration, land management, land registration in Uganda and proposing necessary reforms.
The Commission commenced public hearings across the country and has received several memoranda. On January 15 2018 it submitted an interim report to the President of Uganda with several recommendations including the need to abolish the Uganda Land Commission (ULC); to create a new Land Authority and to reduce the current land tenures “from four to perhaps three: freehold, customary freehold and leasehold.”
Here is the full version of Katikkiro’s presentation
Katikkiro of Buganda Presentation to the Uganda Land-Commission-Of-Inquiry by The Independent Magazine on Scribd
