Children born in captivity in Lango denied access to customary land

Kampala, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT | A number of children born in captivity during Lords Resistant Army insurgency in Lango and Acholi have accused their clan heads of denying them access to customary land ownership.

Some of them say their relatives show up during their traditional marriages claiming that they are not part of clan.

After the over 20 years of insurgency in Northern Uganda and with high levels of poverty, land became the only source of income in the region causing a scramble for the land.

The situation is worse for a male child who brings along with him claims over land especially when he or she is returning home from captivity.

The Lango cultural land Act of 2009, gives access of land to any child whose mother is not married to another clan and is staying at her parental home as long as the children have not been claimed by their father.

Carlcy Rose Atim 18 was not only denied access to land but was forced to drop out of school for lack of fees.

Daniel Omara Atubo, the former Minister for Lands Housing and Urban Development who also doubles as the clan head for Otengoro Olang Clan says the law gives children a right to land at the mother’s paternal home.

He also says that even in situations where the woman is married off by another man, she cannot go with the children but rather leaves them at her parental home to be taken care of by her brothers because the children belongs to the clan and family of the mother who has been married away.

Julius Peter Occur Odwee, the clan head of Okii- Ogwangkoltum clan says despite having strong clan rules, children have a right to land.

Vincent I Oling, a Human Rights Activist in Lango attributed the suffering of children to the problems which people in the North went through in the last 20 years.  He says that children should be treasured.

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