By Joshua Kato
One of the leading causes of personal strife in Uganda today are land conflicts. Almost every day, there is a story in the media and from all parts of the country about communities or families that are being chased off their land.
Pictures of foods that have been destroyed in the conflicts follow the stories. Then there are larger communal conflicts, for example in Apaa, northern Uganda, in the Rwenzori and, where communities are in conflict over land.
And as the population grows further, the size of land does not extend because it is not elastic. In the coming years, these conflicts will gradually reduce the size of land for agriculture, leading to food shortage and hunger.
Eighty-three percent of Uganda is covered by land. And if this land is divided equally among the entire population, every person would get at least 0.3 acres. If it is, however, divided among all households, each would get around 1.2 acres.
Just over 20% of the land in Uganda is registered and mapped, while the rest is held under communal systems. According to the 1998 Land Act, there are mainly four recognizable land tenure systems in Uganda.
These include the mailo land system, the lease hold, customary and communal land systems. Whereas the Government has the Land Act and other laws, these conflicts have continued. Authorities must go back to the drawing board and examine the enforcement measures and reduce on politics in land matters so that the country does not run out of farming land.
