Hon Judith Nabakooba , the Minister of Lands, Housing and UrbaniDevelopment is in the country side to secure the land rights of Ugandans and she has demonstrated this by handing over more freehold land titles to the residents in Rwampara District.
Some 222 and another 2,539 people from Rwampara County and Rwampara East received their freehold titles from the Minister Nabakooba, respectively.
The titles were purchased by gvernment through the Uganda Land Fund to benefit the people in Rwampara district in the greater Ankole region.
Nabakooba advised the new landlords to to live harmoniously with their family members including spouses and children to avoid land related conflicts. She warned against land fragmentation.
“Land fragmentation will affect production because I have seen Ankole people have big banana plantations and I think it is because they use land communally,” she observed.
According to Nabakooba, most of the land wrangles today are being fueled by fraudsters who target redundant land by absentee landlords and end up terrorizing the millions of bibanja owners
The Minister said that people in Rugando sub-county were also given 400 land titles. And in total 6,220 free holders titles have been issued in that area.
“Today, we are beginning a new generation of landlords with titles and you are going to hold them forever. This is one of our (NRM) manifesto implementation plans to help resolve land disputes and reduce the multiplicity of legal and equitable interests on a given piece of land,” Nabakooba explained .
The minister revealed that the government with support from the World Bank will issue more land titles in all the five districts that make-up Greater Ankole and encouraged the youth in the region to embrace government development initiatives to make good use of the land.
“I encourage you to embrace government programmes of social economic development that were put in place to elevate your living standards.”
Nabakooba cautioned residents about money lenders who grab people’s land after failing to pay back the loans. “Don’t sell off your land. Also, avoid going for loans especially from money lenders because they will take your land for free,” she cautioned.
Nabakooba said that through the Land Fund, the government has so far purchased 523 square miles of land across the entire country to stop illegal evictions.
Mr Augustine Bujara, a representative of Uganda Land Commission said 10,000 land titles have been given out in Uganda in the past one and a half years. Another 2,500 land titles were given out in Kakumiro in January, 5,000 titles in Bunyangabo, and Kibaale received 4,500 land titles.
Rwampara Woman legislator Molly Asiimwe, thanked President Yoweri Museveni for the project that has ensured that Rwampara remains a free land disputes area. She also lauded the Lands Minister for the commitment to resolve land wrangles in Uganda despite the serious challenges posed .
Fact sheet
Out of the 2,539 land titles given out in Rwampara East, 1,769 freehold Land titles were given to men (69.7%) and 507 to women representing (19%) of the beneficiaries . Joint ownership of men and women stood at (6.1%) with 155 land given out .
Another 108 titles are for institutions of government, schools, wetlands, road reserves, markets and hospitals among others.
