Oil-rich Uganda faces massive land-wars and population explosion

Land battles are expected to escalate in at least 30 districts in oil-rich Uganda, which also is the African country with the world's third-highest population growth. A 'time-bomb in waiting', warns a local USAID-funded non-governmental organisation.

Uganda's 'Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment' organisation, funded by the Ford Foundation, the EU and USAID, warns that not only the land-registry issue must be resolved to prevent civil war and wars with its neighbours - Uganda must also address the 'population growth rate', reports the local New Vision newspaper. Basically, Uganda's population is growing so fast that it is rapidly running out of land. Uganda’s annual 3.2% population growth rate is third highest in the world. The average Ugandan woman gives birth to seven children in her lifetime. By 2050, Uganda’s population is expected to reach 120-million, three-fold the current population. One of the internal problems which could lead to civil war, is caused by a great variety of tribes fighting over the same land-parcels -- mainly because of the near- total lack of property-registry laws and land-registries which would establish legal land-ownership rights. The World Bank is now funding a massive land-survey, land-registration and title-registry programmes for land owners inside Uganda to try and prevent this threatening civil war as the population expands, writes New Vision. However for some reason, the Ugandan government officials interviewed about this report did not refer to trying to access the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, and which has handled many such seemingly hopeless border and tribal land-rights disputes over the years, thus preventing many local conflicts and unnecessary wars. Kenyan slum dwellers uprooted railway line to Uganda These Ugandan land wars, both internally and at the borders, have in fact already started: last week, Kenyan slum dwellers uprooted the railway line to Uganda, protesting what they called 'the continued Ugandan occupation of Migingo Island' in Lake Victoria. And there's also been violence over Uganda's ownership of the oil-rich Rukwanzi island region in Lake Albert: in August 2007, Congolese soldiers killed an Ugandan-based British oil worker, accusing him of 'illegally crossing the border.' See our previous story: "Ugandan oil-fields best-kept secret in the world" here These two instances above are only two examples of the many land-disputes with Uganda - and most are in highly-populated areas, Acode warns in their report that this looming land-battle is due to growing population pressure and a lack of proper land-ownership policies. By 2050, Uganda’s population is expected to reach 120-million, three-fold the current population. “This is a serious challenge that affects the growth levels in Uganda”, says its 2009 Peer Review report. National population policy urgently needed “It is strongly recommended that Uganda considers adopting and implementing a national population policy as a key element in its poverty reduction strategy. As most of the land conflicts are in highly populated areas, a population policy might also be a key element in averting an escalation of land wars in Uganda." The conflicts include border disputes with neighbouring countries, inter-district border disputes, wrangles between landlords and tenants, and tenants resisting acquisition of land by investors, the report notes. The disputes over international boundaries include Migingo island in Lake Victoria pitting Uganda against Kenya, a 9 km stretch in Yumbe between Uganda and Sudan, the Katuna border area with Rwanda and the Mutukula border area with Tanzania.

Tullow Oil Company

Major oil fields are being discovered in the African Rift Valley's Lake Albert region in Uganda.

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Disagreements with the Democratic Republic of Congo involve the oil-rich Rukwanzi Island in Lake Albert, Semliki, Medigo area in Pakwach and Vurra border area in Arua. And last week Kenyan slum dwellers uprooted the all-important railway line to Uganda -- protesting what they called continued Ugandan occupation of Migingo Island. Disputes over district borders exist between Moroto and Katakwi, Sironko and Kapchorwa, Bundibujo and Kabarole, Moroto and Lira, Tororo and Butaleja, Butaleja and Budaka and over Namatala swamp between Mbale and Budaka districts. In Buganda region, conflicts are expected to worsen between tribal landlords and tenants, the latter increasingly facing eviction as land becomes scarce and its value goes up. Violent evictions have pervaded the area in recent years. Proposed Land Amendment Bill protests tenants better: Land ministry spokesman Dennis Obbo argues that the proposed land amendment bill will solve many of the conflicts in Buganda as it seeks to give more protection to the tenants. However, the Bill has been fiercely resisted and it has been shelved for now. Land-rights campaigners in Gulu have 'disappeared'... In Gulu district, returnees from internally displaced people’s camps (who had fled from the Lord's Resistance Army are locked in land disputes over boundaries as original land marks have disappeared and the elders who knew them have died. In parts of Ankole and Bunyoro, Ugandan royals who hold large chunks of land are embroiled in conflicts with people who have occupied their land for decades. Internal tribal land-rights disputes: In Kasese, three indigenous tribes are fighting over a small portion of land that was not taken over by the Government for game parks or forest reserves. The people of Kasese have been squeezed into ‘a corridor for survival’ as the rest of the land mass is inaccessible because it is gazetted as Government protected land,” says one of the research reports by ACODE. According to the researchers, the Ugandan Government holds 65% of the land in Kasese while the district’s three tribes of Bakhonzo, Basongora and Banyabindi are left to share the remaining 35%. As a result of land scarcity, the Basongora cattle keepers have encroached on Queen Elizabeth National Park after they were chased out of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Violent clashes broke out with the Uganda Wildlife Authority which tried to evict them back into the survival corridor. “To say the least, Kasese is sitting on a time bomb, which could explode anytime,” says the report. In the Eastern part of the country, the Karimojong of Moroto accuse the Teso tribe of Katakwi of having altered the border line in their favour in the 1960s, when Curthbeth Obwongor from Teso was minister of local government. In 1966, the altering of the border caused heated disagreements in the area. The Karimojong petitioned then President Milton Obote, who subsequently cancelled the alteration and dismissed Obwongor from parliament. The dispute, however, flared up again in 2004 when then ruler of Moroto, Terence Achia, locked horns with his Katakwi counterpart, Steven Okure Ilemukorit, over parts of Napak, Kodike and Alekilek which the latter claimed belonged to Katakwi. “These recent claims and counter-claims by politicians are threatening to inflame the conflict and could result into generalized violence,” the report says. Bugando tribesmen fled with colonial land-titles in Kibale The situation in Kibale, which has seen bloody disputes in recent past, is far more complex than any other region and dates back to colonial days. The British colonial government gave part of the Kibale land to chiefs in Bugando Kingdom. When the so-called lost counties were given back to Bunyoro kingdom after independence, the Bugando landlords fled with the land titles. As a result, the occupants on about 70% of Mailo land in the area have no security of ownership. In addition, the Government has over the decades resettled different groups of people in the area. Immigrants now comprise 50% of the district’s population, up from 10% five decades ago. A rift between the indigenous Banyoro and the immigrants has become apparent in 1990s and has continued to grow. Murchison Falls National Park, Budongo Forest reserve: Bulisa district is another trouble spot where oil prospects are just the latest catalyst to a looming land war. According to the area MP, Birahwa Mukutale, the British colonial government took 80% of the land in Bulisa and Bugungu to gazet it as Murchison Falls National Park and Budongo Forest reserve. The remaining 20% was then zoned into grazing land near the lake and land for cultivation near the park. This land has been communally owned and used for over 60 years.

Africom

AFRICOM's Col Ron Anderson recently opened St Theresa's school which with US funding, was translocated to a new region away from the vicious rebel attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army who were killing, raping and maiming many villagers in Uganda until they were chased to neighbouring Congo.

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“Unfortunately, in 2004, Bulisa was invaded by nomadic herdsmen who do not respect the zoning. As a result, there are daily conflicts between cultivators and herdsmen,” says Mukutale. In addition, the herdsmen claim they individually hold land titles for about 40 sq miles in Bulisa. But the indigenous residents refute these claims, arguing that all this land is communally owned. What should be done? Officials in the lands ministry agree with the ACODE researchers. The hot spots are many,” says Dennis Obbo, the ministry’s publicist. “We have found that wherever there is productive use of land along an administrative border, there is conflict.” Mapping the land conflict areas and noting the unique drivers of conflict in each area should be the first step to avert war, according to Onesmus Mugyenyi, the executive director of ACODE. “We carried out this research because we wanted to show the Government that conflict mapping should be adopted as a strategy for resolving disputes. "It should be done on a regular basis so as to help plan interventions. We are hoping that the land policy will sort out many of the problems,” says Obbo. The government is also in the process of buying land from absentee landlords to help insecure tenants acquire land titles. “The government has so far bought over 76 hectares of land with money from the Land Fund.” World Bank's land-surveyance project: The Bulisa MP believes that systematic demarcation of land would also be part of the answer. The World Bank is funding such a project in 28 parishes countrywide - where all land will be surveyed, and land owners will be able to secure their tenure by property registration and legal acquisition of land titles - similar to the ongoing legal land-registry process which has already been so successful in turning Zambia's economy around.