Uganda land row embroils old kingdom
Competition for land is fuelling bitter disputes in the region, which includes Kampala
‘ This land is peaceful,” said Abdul Seryazi, standing in his family fields in Bugabo, a village in central Uganda. But a charred bulldozer alongside tells a different story.
In April, three busloads of men carrying sticks and machetes arrived in the village with the bulldozer. Angry residents fought back, fearing the land would be cleared, and the machine was set alight.
While violent evictions are not unusual in Uganda, the case is notable because the landlord is Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II — the king, or ‘kabaka’, of Buganda, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda.
Mutebi himself is revered as a cultural figurehead for more than six million Baganda, the country’s largest ethnic group.
However growing competition for land is fuelling bitter disputes in the region, which includes Kampala, the capital.
The latest flashpoint is a new land titling scheme which is bringing the kingdom into conflict with both the national government and local tenants, who fear they will lose the fields they have farmed for generations.
The kingdom began urging people to apply for leasehold titles on its land in April, saying it will protect tenants, offer security and encourage investment.
According to Abdul Nadduli, a minister without portfolio in the national government, the campaign fanned local anxiety that the kabaka wants to “confiscate the people’s land”. But Dennis Bugaya, legal officer at the Buganda Land Board, which manages the kingdom’s estates, dismissed the fears, saying tenants had been misled by “a pack of political opportunists”.
The debate over tenure revives old tensions between the government and the Buganda kingdom, which has long pushed for greater autonomy.
President Yoweri Museveni restored the historic kingdom in 1993, but has long quarrelled with the kabaka over land reform, political autonomy and the return of Buganda’s assets.