Josephine Maseruka
18 November 2008
Kampala — LEGISLATORS who have been scrutinising the Land Bill, 2007 want Parliament to pass it with minor amendments.
The committees on physical infrastructure and legal and parliamentary affairs will begin discussing the draft report on the controversial Bill today.
The committees are expected to come up with a final report, which will be taken back to the House for a final debate.
The Bill was read for the first time on February 5, 2008 and referred to the committees on physical infrastructure and on legal and parliamentary affairs for consideration.
The physical infrastructure committee chairperson, Abraham Byandala, yesterday said the Bill was behind schedule by over 10 months and needed to be expedited.
"We have been having this report since February. In the normal procedure, we should have scrutinised it in within 45 days," he said.
The draft report recommended that the Government finds a way of assisting people who have been evicted before the law is enacted.
They urged the Government to set up a land fund to compensate land owners, adding that this would remove dual ownership and competing rights by tenants and land owners.
The aim of the Bill is to protect bona fide occupants from widespread evictions.
Some critics view the Bill as the Government's ploy to steal land.
The committee members observed that there was no sufficient consultation done to proceed with the drafting of the Bill.
"This was evident from the public outcry and criticisms of the proposed law," the report read.
The MPs noted that the lands ministry later carried out country-wide sensitisation meetings.
The Presidential Task Force on the Land Amendment Bill was also set up and new amendments were submitted by the Government, which were accepted and considered by the committees.
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These criminals are undeterred, marching lock step to their inevitable fate. These dumb laws can and will be be reversed.