Despite progress made to address land-related legislative issues, the land sector in Uganda faces several challenges that include insecurity of tenure, overlapping and conflicting land rights, and glaring inequity in access to and ownership of land. Conflicts that are a consequence of colonial legacy are exacerbated in the majority of cases by competition over access, use and transfer of scarce land and natural resources, ever increasing population densities, largely driven by the high population growth rate, unsustainable agricultural practices, and policy and institutional weaknesses. Possibility of increasing conflict is largely driven by competition for influence and power which comes with demonstrated control over land matters such as ownership, allocation and access especially as regards overlapping land rights. Structurally, Uganda’s population is growing at a high rate of 3.2 per cent and is projected to shoot up to 39.3 million in the year 2015 and 54.9 million in 2025 due to high fertility rate, set next to deficits in land governance, corruption and ignorance of the law, the automatic escalation of land conflict to phenomenal levels, is not only well deserved but is clearly foretold.

show more