UGANDA, Kabale | Real Muloodi News | On Saturday 10th December, the government gave 4,000 families land titles in Ndorwa Subcounty and Kitumba Subcounty, Kabale District.
The move came as a result of the government’s effort to resolve land disputes in Kabale, where much of the land where the 4,000 Kabale beneficiaries reside has never been titled.
The certificates of customary ownership were presented by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, who presided over the ceremony.
While at the handover, PM Nabbanja cautioned parents against demarcating and fragmenting land among their children, since the land titles given to them are for large plots.
She also warned the beneficiaries not to take the government’s initiative for granted by selling their land titles.
“The beneficiaries should not sell their land titles as it is wastage of resources,” she said.
Minister of Trade, David Bahati who is also the MP of Ndorwa Sub-county, was also present at the ceremony. He said that the issuance of land titles will reduce land wrangles and help locals to look at land as an asset for family productivity.
“You can use the land title as an asset to secure other resources to develop your home,” said Minister Bahati.
Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba says the project to register customary land was carried out her ministry, in partnership with the Global Land Tool Network, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Makerere University’s School of Built Environment, and the Kabale District local government.
“The project builds on the pilot project titled ‘Securing Land Tenure for Improved Food Security in Select Areas in Uganda’, which was funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kampala, whose titles were handed over by President Yoweri Museveni in 2018 in Kabale,” Nabakooba says.
Before the event, Nabakooba had invited Members of Parliament from the Kigezi sub-region to join the government and witness the National Resistance Movement government achieve one of its manifesto pledges to Ugandans: registering land for its citizens and protecting it.
Ankole Gets 1,500 Titles
In August of this year, the government distributed the first batch of 1,500 titles to customary owners in the Greater Ankole area, through the ministry zonal office in Mbarara.
Nabakooba distributed the titles to the Ankole recipients, whose land had also never been titled. Titles were awarded in Mbarara City, Ibanda, Rwampara, and Kiruhura districts.
She appealed to the residents in Greater Ankole to guard their certificates of title zealously, and protect themselves from land grabbers.
Additionally, Nabakooba advised the grantees to frequently visit the National Land Information System to confirm that they were still the legal owners.
She pleaded with local authorities to persuade individuals to pay the needed USh70,000 Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) fees, which are necessary to complete the titling procedure, as mandated by law.
Nabakooba also pledged that they would keep supporting the new titled landowners so that they could use their property productively.
According to Nabakooba, the registered landowners received agricultural inputs, and she appealed to the residents to make the most of the identified agriculture opportunities in their areas for development.
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