Buganda Kingdom has renewed its demand for the return to the federal system of governance, as one of the solutions to the land issues facing the country.
This is one of the Kingdom’s recommendations presented to the Commission of Inquiry into land matters by the Kingdom Premier Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga on Wednesday.
Buganda also recommends the re-instatement of the district land boards, appointing more judges to the land division of the High Court among others.
Charles Peter Mayiga who led a delegation from Buganda Kingdom explained to the commission the different land ownership systems in Buganda and advised that there is no need to fuse mailo land into any other system as per the commission’s recent recommendation.
The Katikiro also highlighted six issues that he says are at the centre of the land crisis in the country.
The Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led seven-member committee started work in May 2017 and has investigated land issues countrywide, meeting several people as it seeks to find a solution to the land-related challenges in the country.
A provoking analysis of mailo land
Government recently returned official mailo titles to the Buganda Land Board (BLB), the entity that is in charge of managing Kabaka’s land.
However, TheUgandan understands, those titles are officially supposed to be for the ‘Ssazas’ (counties) and ‘Gombololas’ (sub-counties). This is in referance to over 295 land titles that the central government has handed over to Buganda kingdom since 2015.
The move was in fulfillment of the memorandum of understanding government inked with Mengo in 2013. But our legal analysts poke holes in the move, saying the return had no legal instrument and in any case say government cannot legally give away public land to a private entity in the name of BLB.
“Indeed it was an error for the Registrar General to register private entity in the name of Buganda Land Board which clearly confused the public with the name of Buganda Land Board which existed under the 1962 independence constitution,” says the lawyer who preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“Under the 1962 constitution, the Buganda Land Board was a constitutional body, however, the current Buganda Land Board is a private company and corporation solely owned by the Kabaka who is Ronald Muwenda Mutebi.”
In conclusion, the lawyer advises that there is need to revisit the whole concept of mailo land.
“Aside from creating a privileged class of landowners whose consideration was loyalty towards and collaboration with the colonial masters to keep law and order, among other things, it provided no development incentives whatsoever,” he says.
