The Ministry of Lands has issued freehold land titles to more than 700 residents of Kamwenge district.
The land titles were processed under the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAAC) program designed for Refugee Host Districts. Under the program, the communities are provided with freehold certificates of titles to ensure that the land laws are followed and importantly land owners have their rights secured.
Kamwenge District is one of the 11 Districts that host a large number of refugees in the country. The other 10 are Adjumani, Moyo, Yumbe, Arua, Obongi, Lamwo, Terego Kiryandongo, Isingiro, and Madi-Okollo.
During a function held at Rwamwanja stadium in Nkoma-Katalyeba Town Council, the minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Judith Nabakoba said that apart from providing security to land owners, the freehold certificates of titles offer possibilities to the holders to access credit from various financial institutions and thereby empowering them financially.
She noted that a special component of the project considered the strengthening of security of tenure after it was realized that out of ignorance of land tenure systems, the communities that host or border refugee settlements were increasingly losing security on their land, where many residents were selling their land out rightly to refugees.
“The laws of Uganda do not allow foreigners that include refugees to hold land in the customary tenure, mailo tenure and freehold tenure, so selling the land to them was against the land laws,” Nabakoba noted.
She, however, noted that the law allows foreigners to get land on lease from the indigenous people with the possibility of the land reverting to the owner after lease expiry. “This is what is called strengthening of security of tenure of the land owner,” she said.
A total of 797 freehold titles have so far been issued under the same program in the district from the 1,2028 parcels mapped to receive the titles.
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