Africa-Press – Uganda. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Central Executive Committee has adopted President Museveni’s policy document on compensation, compelling mailo land owners to stop evicting tenants.
President Museveni, who is also the national chairman of the NRM, met his party leaders at the weekend, where he presented a paper he said would act as a guiding tool for the execution of the party’s work.
“On the issue of land, the CEC resolved to de-campaign land fragmentation, resist land evictions especially the bibanja owners through compensating the “exploitative” mailo owners,” a statement by the party reads in part.
President Museveni has consistently attributed the land evictions to the mailo land tenure system, which is only in Buganda region.
Under the mailo land tenure system, the land owner registered on the certificate of title, the tenant by occupancy and bibanja holders have interests on the said land.
This land tenure system was introduced in the 1900 agreement between Buganda Kingdom and British colonialists.
Under the tenure, a few chiefs could own land and others became tenants or bibanja holders. However, the government wants to amend the land law to make it hard to evict bibanja owners (tenants).
But Buganda Kingdom is opposed to the proposal of removing mailo land tenure system or amending it.
On April 15, 2018, Mr Charles Peter Mayiga, the premier of Buganda Kingdom, in a letter reacting to Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s report, asked the government to abandon the abolition of the mailo land or fusing it into another land tenure system.
Mr Mayiga proposed that the government instead injects more money in the land fund to liberate landless people and also reduce duplicity of ownership on the mailo land.
The Buganda kingdom premier also said if the government ensured that the existing laws are enforced, there wouldn’t be any problems of evictions.
At the weekend, the NRM CEC adopted a policy to help rural farmers join commercial farming “and abandon subsistence farming, what the President called working for the stomach”.
They agreed to implement free education in all government schools.
“…The NRM government should ensure improvement of social services and amenities through enforcement of free education in all government schools, also availing cheap electricity for manufacturers, eliminating all sorts of crimes and theft through improved security services,” the statement reads in part.
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