Robert Mwanje & Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa
10 September 2008
Mengo — District chairmen from Buganda region yesterday backed the kingdom's stand against the proposed Land Amendment Bill 2007, saying the existing land laws have provisions that can resolve land conflicts.
During a six-hour closed door meeting held at Bulange- Mengo, district bosses from 13 out of the 15 districts in Buganda reportedly agreed that the government had failed to implement the existing laws and there was no need to enact a new land law.
"We are convinced that the existing laws on land can help to solve the problem if they are fully implemented," Mr Vincent Ssemakula Ssettuba is quoted by a source as having said. Mr Ssettuba, the Rakai district chairman also chairs the Buganda Districts' Chairpersons Association.
But the district chairmen asked Mengo to accept that there were massive illegal evictions of tenants and advised that the Buganda Prime Minister (Katikkiro) engages government for a lasting solution.
Buganda Katikkiro John Baptist Walusimbi convened the meeting.
The chairmen also asked the Katikkiro to find ways of integrating them into the Lukiiko(Buganda Parliament) to enable them take more binding decisions in the interest of the kingdom
The Buganda Kingdom and the government are locked in a bitter row over the Land (Amendment) Bill, which is currently before Parliament.
Mengo says the law aims at grabbing the kingdom's land, while the government insists it is intended to protect tenants from unlawful evictions. According to sources who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, the meeting agreed it reconvenes on October 7 for a final discussion on the matter.
The proposed amendments have already caused a storm, especially in Buganda with several interest groups rejecting the government's move to grant the lands minister more arbitration powers in land disputes.
Buganda Kingdom State Minister for Information Medard Lubega told Daily Monitor yesterday that the meeting also discussed the kingdom's possibility of getting back its property like sub-county and county headquarters, most of which are currently managed by local governments.
The property was confiscated by the central government after the abolition of monarchies in 1966. The cultural institutions were restored in 1993. Of the 15 districts in Buganda, only three - Kiboga, Mpigi and Mukono have returned the kingdom property.
While on a tour in Rakai early this year, Vice President Gilbert Bukenya said it was high time the Kabaka was given what belonged to him including land.
Prof Bukenya is quoted to have said he was on a wider campaign to convince all the concerned parties to return the Kabaka's land so that "he uses it as he wishes".
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