CITIZENS IN KAYUNGA INTERFACE WITH MINISTER TO QUESTION THE LAND ACT OF UGANDA

The community citizens of Kayunga District invoked chapter one of the Uganda Constitution to interface with Hon. Sulaiman Madada, MP, and State Minister for Gender on Tuesday 26th May, 2015. The Citizens under the KYATTO Neighborhood Assembly organised an "International" branded  NA that was held at Kakokotalisi Primary School, Kawolokoto Sub county, Kayunga District. The NA was attended by CEWIT partners from South Africa and The Netherlands. The NA main agenda was on the land question that had remained a big threat to livelihoods and food security and governance  in Kawolokoto Sub county.

L-R, UNATHI (SA), YOSIEN (NL) Hon. Sulaiman Madada, Benson members of CEWIT attending the KYATTO NA on Tuesday 26th, May, 2015 at Kakokotalisi Primary School, Kalowokato Sub county, Kayunga District.

In the background above are about 600 citizens who attended the neighborhood assembly and fully participated in asking the MP and Minister about the status of their land in Kayunga district for which many people had been displaced.

A skit by the KYATTO NA portraying the Land question in Kayunga district

 The NA developed a skit on the  land question in Kayunga District and how a local council one chairperson had connived with one investor to grab their land and lease it without their knowledge. The community urged they had lived on the land for the rest of their lives and their ancestors were buried on the said land. The local leaders challenged the community to prove ownership of the land despite the fact that they had lived on the same. Later, the local leaders called in an NGO to come and educate the masses on land rights and the processes of proof of ownership of land in Uganda. Later,  after the play, the people were give time ask questions in line with the play and for the Hon. Madada to respond to.

An old women who asked the Hon. Minister about the status of the people were are waiting eviction to pave way for sugar can plantation in Kayunga district

During the discussions, Hon. Sulaiman Madada responded the the citizens and based himself on the law governing land in Uganda.

Hon. Sulaiman Madada, MP, Minister of State for Gender- Elderly and PWDs

In his response the Minister was quick to trace the land wrangles right from the time of colonialism until Uganda made its new Constitution that placed land in the hands of the people. He noted that, the land question in Kayunga is due to lack of rightful ownership and some people were trying to use unlawful means to settle the land conflicts. The minister further showed the gathering a letter which the commissioner land registry wrote to Mukono Land Registrar and copied to Kayunga land Board halting leasing of land in Bbaale County. The citizens who had accused the minister for negligence later realised that following the law was the right way of solving the land question in Kayunga district and Uganda as a Whole.Thus the Project name "FOLLOW THE LAW" was better delivered by the NA skit on land conflicts in the community.

A citizen who had been chosen by the people reading the photocopy of the letter by the Commissioner land registry to the Land board in Kayunga dated:

When Hon. Madada showed the gathering the letter from the Commissioner land Registry,the people asked one of the participants to read the letter and later interpreter it  in Luganda for them to understand the contents better.

Time for jubilation!! We shall follow the law

During the KYATTO NA, it was realised that the communities are not informed on their rights and obligations and the elite want to exploit them after one participant had asked if it were right for three people to acquire a land title on their behalf since they do not have the money to process a land title for the village dwellers. The Hon. Minister Madada, vehemently rejected the proposal by the village members to register land in names of three people. He advised that, each community member or family is required by law to register their own land. No short cut.

CEWIT, Serit Institute and Net Werk Demo cratie team in Uganda, 27th May, 2015

Why the project on "FOLLOW THE LAW"

Right from the skit of the KYATTO NA, it was realised that if citizens participate in the law making processes at different level, they will be better governed and thus promote the democratic principles in their different country context.

FOR AND MY COUNTRY

Jimmy Baluku Odyek
RWECO and Member of CEWIT -Uganda
http://rweco.org/