Land Grabbing in Uganda is the legacy of politics the NRM government will leave.

Land Grabbing in Uganda is the legacy of politics the NRM government will leave.

In a turn of events in Uganda the squatters of yesteryears have become the biggest landowners through their political families some shamelessly own entire counties as rewards for political deals.

The people of Acholi sub region, who are traumatized from long periods of insurgency are facing the monster of a silent re-colonization taking place in a massive scale in Acholi sub region orchestrated by the sitting regime through brutal means of land grabbing.

Since the end of active hostilities in Northern Uganda, the war has turned to the deliberate and forceful acquisition of land, through state displacement and evictions. The government forcefully herded people out of their lands into concentration camps for years and this land remained ideal. But now that the war is over the people tried to regain the communally-owned land.

The same government that herded the people from their ancestral land is standing on the way of the people to resettle in their communally owned land through axis of agents like the Madhivani group and the discovery of oil deposits beneath much of this land, the post-conflict period has seen new forms of land conflicts emerge between the commercial farmer and government on one hand and residents who do not want to part with ownership of their land. The government initially claimed it wants the land on behalf of the commercial farmer to grow sugarcane, and consequently the economy but after the locals having resisted this move successfully through the courts. The government was not defeated it improvised another trick ,that is to re-demarcate the land and parcel it out to a more friendly district of Adjumani and the other parts put under the national Wild Life authority . All these are disguised attempt of disenfranchising the people and ceasing ownership of their property through deception, especially that oil deposits have been reported to be in plenty beneath the same land.

Therefore in attempt by the local to resist this move it has taken on conventional and non-conventional methods. Because government is siding with the land grabbers, Acholi women are having nude protest against the government and its politicians, however this method in itself has exposed the helpless women to severe torture as illustrated in the photo above.

Land grabbing has prompted the Acholi to point a finger to the high levels of corruption and connivance between the politicians, government and the investors involved in securing large-scale land deals, but the concerns extend far beyond this. The population accuse NRM leaning politicians of having been bribed by the commercial giants to not support them with the exception of one MP for Kilak Hon.Gilbert Olanya who has stood with them in the fight to consolidate land ownership.

Land tenure is a very complex issue in Uganda owing to diverse existence of cultures in Uganda, to most citizens land is the source of life , through agricultural usage of this land families eke a living therefore it becomes a matter of life and death.

Culturally in the northern community land was not just a material possession, land defined ones roots from generations to generations besides the commercial usage, and almost everyone wishes to be buried near their ancestors, on their and his land. However NRM regime has unfortunately politicized even land ownership in the disguise of reforming the system,

Tragically, this DE possession of land is taking place in Acholi land at the time when the country is entering a elections time, because of population mistrust of the government especially during the crucial time for election land has always been grabbed to settle foreigners who vote for the regime and the people of the Acholi land suspect this is the purpose rather than the advanced theory of land demarcation.

Amidst all this wrangles the government is silent on the solution, for example what the solutions to the displaced are; pastoralists loosing grazing land? and the locals who will lose access to crucial common property resources which is important to the survival of local communities.

Land belongs to the people and government which is elected by the people, should not do illegitimate land deals that violate the rights of the existing users.