Attack on Traditional and Customary land by Ugandan Government

CONDEMN THE UGANDAN GOVERNMENTS PROTRACTED ATTACK ON TRADITIONAL AND CUSTOMARY LAND OWNERSHIP

Ugandans are concerned and angered at the increasing manipulation of land law by the current President,Yoweri Museveni, thinly disguised as Land Reform. The controversial Land Act 1998, and secondary legislation introduced since has seen the value of land significantly diminish, traditional land owners disenfranchised and impoverished. If the latest Land Bill is passed, it will have a devastating and permanent impact on the poor whose only valuable possession is inherited land. The proposals
i) undermine centuries old customary land tenure systems
ii) remove powers of traditional leaders from presiding over local land disputes with reckless unconcern for the effect on these very poor populations
iii) attempts to centralise power over land through the Minister of Lands and Local Government. This will not go unchallenged by the masses.

Current Land Reform is thinly designed to advantage two controversial groups:

1. Ethnic Bahima nomadic herdsmen: allowing them to settle wherever they please, to the detriment of traditional legitimate agricultural land owning communities with life long investment in the land. Museveni descends from Nilo Hamites nomadic group ordinarily settled in Western Uganda (Bahima), Tutsi (Rwanda and Burundi), Banyamulenge (DRC Congo) and Bahema (Northern Tanzania). Groups have merged ready to take over land as soon as the proposed Land Act is passed.

2. Musevenis Investors The immoral and unprovoked confiscation of lawfully owned land, to be given to Investors is unethical. There is no transparency about who Investors are, their previous business experience, source of their wealth, or strategic plan for confiscated land. Investors should normally negotiate directly with lawful land owners in private. This injustice has reached a politically dangerous tipping point.

The growing anger and resentment from traditional leaders and land owning communities they represent is evident across the country. Alliances are taking root within specific ethnic groups including the Baganda, the Acholi, Karimajong, Iteso, Langi and Basoga who would be directly and indirectly significantly and permanently disadvantaged by these outrageous proposals. The promoters and perpetrators of this outrage are the West Ugandan ethnic groups of Banyankore, Banyarwanda, Bakiga and Banyoro, (about 30\% of the population)whose cultures do not value land ownership. Festering anger and resentment has resulted in warning signs that mirror the United Nations Eight Stages of Genocide. International strategic policy makers are called upon to intervene to avert an ethnic cleansing catastrophe. Musevenis ethnic group may have temporary political and economic advantage, but provoking land owners to a tipping point may build up a dangerous momentum, in which many will perish.

This petition seeks:
i. International political intervention to avert ethnic conflict over controversial land reform in Uganda and permanent resolution to political land confiscations. This includes Bugandas confiscated 9000 square miles.

ii. Protection of traditional and communal land against opportunistic political leaders, justice and reassurance to land owners of their rights under traditional norms.