The government has handed a total of 4,454 mailo land titles (certificates) to the people of Bunyangabu District who graduated from being occupants to registered owners.
While handing over the titles during a ceremony held at the Kibiito Secondary School Playground on Saturday, March 4, 2023, the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, said that addressing the issue of multiple rights on land is the beginning of fighting poverty and ensuring food security, among other limitations to development.
The beneficiaries were formerly occupants on land comprising Bunyangabu block 44 plot 20 and block 32 plot 1, where the government resolved the issue of multiple rights on the same piece of land.
The land originally belonged to the private estate of Patrick David Mathew Kaboyo, who was the Omukama of Tooro, and later to Best Kemigisa (Administrator of the Estate of the Late Patrick David Mathew Kaboyo), but on February 19, 2009, the government paid for the land and transferred it to the Uganda Land Commission.
She said that the activity of issuing the certificates would lead to sustainable development, improved land management, and security of tenure in both rural and urban areas.
PM Nabbanja said the NRM manifesto promised to protect land owners countrywide by issuing them with titles as part of reassuring them that no one can take their land from them.
“Indeed, this program under the Land Fund goes hand in hand with the Parish Development Model (PDM). That should motivate you to use your land productively, especially since you have fertile soils and adequate rainfall,” Nabbanja said.
She further added that the ‘Kibalo’ here should be to grow improved and fast-maturing cash crops so as to join the cash economy as promised by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government in the National Development Plan (NDPIII).
Nabbanja cautioned government officials over the mishandling of PDM funds, saying the government is now freeing land from disputes due to multiple rights and helping their people move from subsistence livelihoods.
“This program under the Land Fund will continue until we address all these land conflicts in the country. For those that have received titles today, there should be no land fragmentation, as guided by the president. You should only share what comes out of the land but not subdivide the land,” she advised.
Judith Nabakooba, the Minister for Land, congratulated the people who received their land titles and emphasized the NRM manifesto to help sort out land disputes arising out of multiple interests on one piece of land.
In total, the government has used the Land Fund to acquire 334,458 acres, equivalent to 523 square miles of land, across the entire country as part of its strategy to stop illegal land eviction,” Nabakooba noted.
