President Museveni has observed the need for special attention given towards proper Land registration and land use planning.
He says this would facilitate investment and productivity as a basis for achieving industrialization and urbanization.
The Head of State noted that the current urbanisation and land use practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 10% of its land registered, indicates a process that needs considerable attention in terms of proper land registration and land use planning.
The president made the remarks in his speech read for him by H.E the Vice President Maj. Jessica Alupo who represented him at a conference on promotion of successful governments and civil society organization partnerships in land governance at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Museveni said the developed countries in America, Europe and Asia have more than 80% of their lands registered and with less than 5% of their total populations living on agriculture and in rural areas.
Museveni told participants that in Uganda, land is owned under the four tenure systems including Mailo, leasehold, freehold and customary systems with an estimated 30% of the land registered.
He said the country’s population has increased from a mere 6 million in 1962 to an estimated 45 million. Museveni noted that of the 45million Ugandans, 17% are in urban areas while 83% are on the rural land and not effectively utilizing it for production.
“The labour force in Uganda’s agricultural sector constitutes 73.3%; only 4.2% is in the Industrial sector and 22.5% in the Services sector compared to Industrialized countries like the United Kingdom where 1.4% of the labour force is in the agricultural sector; 18.2% in the industrial sector and 80.4% in the services sector. In the United States of America, 0.7% of the labour force is in the agricultural sector; 22.9% are in the industrial sector; and 76.4% of the labour force constitutes the services sector” he explained.
Museveni warned that Uganda’s land size shall not be enough for all people unless the country invests in industrialization and urbanization.
He however, noted that our land governance interventions need to emulate the developed countries which moved from agrarian societies to industrious societies. The president said this would enable the country to also optimally utilize it’s land, while at the same time, protect the critical ecological systems from destruction and degradation.
“Primitive practices like land fragmentation must also be discouraged in favour of other alternatives of land consolidation.
The NRM Government has long recognized the need for such land governance interventions in order to protect the land rights of Ugandans” Museveni explained adding that the NRM 10-Point Programme identified some of the problems arising out of the numerous land conflicts, injustices and tenure insecurity.
He said since Uganda and other Sub Saharan countries have market driven economies, it is now important for land governance matters to guide all the stakeholders on ensuring that there is certainty of land ownership. Museveni said with this, citizens will be able to correctly and openly identify and recognize land owners and any other user rights that exist on the land at any one time and this would result in greater social cohesion.
“Our land governance interventions ought to ensure security of tenure through building and maintaining an open and transparent adjudication and mediation processes to reduce on the problem of overwhelming land cases which lock up land for investment” he said.
The president said greater land security should in turn lead to greater productivity on the land and reduce on the land disputes and conflicts which give rise to expensive litigation.
He also called for handling of land conflicts through mediation processes as opposed to litigation which he said many find to be expensive.
Museveni urged governments to be mindful of protecting their citizens from land evictions, which adversely affect the majority and most vulnerable categories of owners and users.
“These evictions cause untold socio-political instability, tenure insecurity and landlessness. Our Countries must work towards having vibrant land markets, which call for cheap, secure and effective systems for recording and transferring land under various tenure systems worldwide” he said.
The president said that Uganda’s policy to fight poverty through wealth creation is anchored on land, noting that other government initiatives can only succeed if the people’s land rights are assured and guaranteed.
He noted the vitality of the Land sector administrators to take a proactive and innovative approach in ensuring the optimal use of land.
“Land and land use in the world is central to the actualization of the core values of human dignity, equality, equity and the advancement of human rights and fundamental freedoms” he said.
