By Patrick Okino
The Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF) has launched a programme to register 2,000 parcels of land and issue Certificates of Customary Ownership in Apac District.
The initiative is aimed at helping landowners secure legal documentation for their property and reduce land-related conflicts.
Eunice Abia, a senior land management officer, said the programme complements government and development partner interventions, including the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAC) programme targeting 24,000 households and a European Union-funded intervention that has already supported land registration in the district.
Speaking to residents during the fifth land camp in Apac, Abia said land conflicts that were previously widespread in the district were gradually declining because of interventions by government and development partners.
She said that in 2021, under the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU), a government programme funded by the European Union, 1,507 land certificates were issued to communities.
She added that under the SLAC programme, about 4,700 land titles had so far been prepared and were ready for collection, out of the 24,000 households targeted.
“Alongside that, we are also happy that ESAFF has come to help us in registering land under Certificates of Customary Ownership and targeting 2,000 households in the district,” Abia said.
She explained that the ESAFF initiative uses a self-financing model under which communities contribute towards the cost of land registration.
Abia commended development partners for supporting land registration, saying their interventions were helping to address gaps that government alone could not easily bridge.
“Land without legal documents is like you don’t have [land],” she said.
Stella Rose Akutui, a programme officer for policy and research at ESAFF, said the organisation had realised that many people struggle to secure their land because they lack knowledge about land rights and procedures for protecting their property.
She said ESAFF was sensitising communities about land rights, registration procedures and the importance of obtaining legal documentation.
Akutui said the organisation was also introducing a self-financing model in which communities, the Ministry of Lands and district authorities share the cost of registering land and acquiring certificates.
She said the land camp, held under the theme “Secured Land for All,” aimed to close information gaps on land tenure, provide legal aid and support land registration, particularly for vulnerable groups such as women.
Denis Obbo, the principal communication officer at the Ministry of Lands, said much of the land in northern and eastern Uganda is held under customary tenure, but only a small proportion has been formally registered.
Obbo said Uganda has four land tenure systems—customary, mailo, freehold and leasehold—and urged landowners to register their land and acquire the necessary ownership documents.
He said the growing population was increasing pressure on available land, making it important for people to secure legal documentation before they risk being displaced from land they have occupied for years.
“We have to be careful and they need to be helped in the process. The danger and harm come from our own people,” Obbo said, warning that some people take advantage of others to grab land.
Julius Peter Okai from the Lira Land Zonal Office cautioned leaseholders against selling government land, saying they are required to pay premiums and ground rent and cannot simply sell the land as though they owned it outright.
Abalo Jane, a resident of Apac Municipality, said she owns land but does not have a title.
She said she had constructed a house on the land, but a neighbour later began constructing on a road leading to her home. The municipality stopped the construction but reportedly offered to compensate the neighbour Sh6 million.
Alinga Charles said his father gave a piece of land to the Prisons Department in 1971, but the family had never been compensated. He said the family wanted to reclaim the land.
However, Obbo said the land now belongs to the government and cannot be reclaimed, citing constitutional provisions governing land ownership and claims.