Opinion: Is the Fight Against Land Grabbing a Lost Cause?

The order of nature commands that man was set to multiply and fill the world. What it didn’t say, is if it filled to the brim, what would happen to the excess numbers produced on a limited land mass, if the Malthusian theory of population growth was not fully functional? In most of the world, the rate of population growth is outstripping the rate of death and with improved science and technology, the term life expectancy is a moving target in both developing and developed economies.

Back home, the issue of land mass pitied against population explosion is not too evident as the major cause of land grabbing, but rather socio-political issues that conspire to cause pervading mayhem in the country, most especially in central and the greater Bunyoro region. In these two regions the greatest undoing is the Mailo land tenure system, a creature of 1900 agreement, which created squatters, landlords and absentee landlords. The 1900 Agreement was basically an appeasement pact to Buganda collaborators against the rebellious Banyoro. Most Baganda were allotted huge swathes of land on paper without both knowledge and capacity to verify their booty. This led to absentee landlords. This is the most driving cause of land grabbing in most parts of Bunyoro and rural Buganda. Great-grandchildren of 1900 beneficiaries are on a selling spree of the lands parcelled to their Great great grandfathers with no regard to the original occupants, turned into squatters, of the land that was given away by the 1900 agreement. Land titles exchange hands in Kampala and next thing, given the plans of the new owners, the bonafide occupants will be thrown off the land using force of a court order or physical confrontation. At this point, it is survival for the fittest. The weak will be vanquished, banished and property destroyed rendering them destitute.

This group constitutes of well-connected land grabbers who will invoke a name of a highly placed bigshot that will scare away even the nearest police station not to intervene. At this point the helpless will resort to local leadership, who, in most cases are compromised.

The second group consists of family wrangles arising from customary inheritance or outright impunity of the powerful family members who coerce other members into accepting the sale of family land. Whoever opposes the sale or doesn’t agree with the sharing formula will be vilified by the rest of the family members. Most times if he is among the minority, he is thrown off the land brutally. This leads to long court cases where the financially better family member takes the day.

Till recently when the inheritance was amended, cultural norms placed the powers of administration solely in the hands of the heir. The heir has been having wide-ranging powers to the extent that he could mortgage, lease, sell or give away chunks of land with less regard to other family members. This impunity breeds discord among family members leading grabbers to take advantage of the chaos. Since it is a network of conspirators, right from registry in the land commission to District land boards, the most connected will take the day. All conspirators benefit either pecuniary or physical parcels of plot on the land.

Recently, there has emerged a new era of land grabbing involving hired mercenaries. This takes two ways, the first one is having large number of hired goons ready for confrontation with whoever tries to enter the land. They are attack dogs, at any prompting they react with violence. In order to win, then the protagonist must also have more or equal fighting force. Most times it ends in fatalities.  This was the case with Sobi. The second way, is having a large number of mercenaries doubling as a security outfit and farm workers. These are hired to cultivate the farm as permanent residents, but also with a role of fighting any intruder. It’s a long plan to create an impression of ownership. The locals get to think that since the occupation has taken so long, seeing farms under crop, then the ownership is sorted.

The other category of land grabbers is the surveyors and land dealers. During an innocent survey by genuine land owners, the surveyors take advantage of the ignorance of the local owners to create fake titles. When it is eventually found out, court cases start or violent confrontation to determine the true ownership. Sometimes, the land dealers approach the locals with a view of helping them to secure land titles. Out of ignorance, the dealer fleeces them by creating subdivisions that were not agreed on. The dealers are so powerful to a point of threatening local leaders and territorial police commanders not to intervene. Sometimes they are escorted by security forces using fake court orders.

The last category is the criminal justice system. Most cases are determined in courts on technicalities without visiting the ground. This puts the weaker side that cannot hire lawyers at a disadvantage. Land cases drag on for a long time, whoever has capacity to sustain legal representation is in a better position.

In conclusion, the fight against land grabbing can only be curbed by having tough laws that are enforced without fear or favor of the high and mighty.