While Kenyans are still picking up the spoils of the a botched election, Tanzanians are pondering about what on earth could that series of unfortunate development look like if it befell them. Ugandans are however walking that tight road which seeks to decimate the peace by instituting unfair legislation, drumming up support, ask me what support? .The support to lawfully steal land through parliament from its rightful owners. The country’s Legislature is equally split on contentious land legislation yet be debated and passed.
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What is the essence of this legislation and why is the Government pushing so hard to pass it the way it wants?
There are some real draconian sections of the proposed legislation which Government wants to enforce, take an example “a country where there is both public and private ownership, a government minister should be vested with authority to issue a certificate of land occupancy to a tenant irrespective of landlord’s reservations”. The minister does not have to have any local knowledge. More so a land lord can only sell lease the land on consent of tenant. Any kind of infringement say on evicting the tenant by land lord is tantamount to having to serve time for at least seven years behind bars.
The legislation however does not clarify any penalties binding tenants for that matter. In recent times an army of cattle herders have moved from their native areas in the west to come overnight and occupy land in the southern /central part of the country with their herds. They have been settling anywhere they find land irrespective of who owns it.
There is a big war of words now as to who authorizes their migration and why they choose to come here , the government having a clear majority in the parliament is only trying to rubber stamp the law through parliament. The law to many seems tilted to benefit the new migrating herders “balaalo”to the frustration of the indigenously farming communities in the central part of the country who are as well private land owners. There are also other individuals evicting people from their land and are mostly the well connected fellows to the bafflement of many folks. In a rare turn of events the government is proposing to remove management and development of Kampala and Entebbe cities from local authorities claiming failure on their part. The government had in the past prohibited any crucial revenues to be collected by local authorities however yet expecting the officials to invest in infrastructure and a whole lot of projects to change the face of the cities, whether this could be done without any revenues was up to them to figure out where to source the money from. Due to its previous stances on the land ownership and the whole drama of forceful evictions at most times by cronies of government officials, there is wide placed skepticism as to the fairness, authenticity of the whole project and the people spearheading it.
Can we learn anything from what is happening anywhere?
History has it straight and we have clear cut signs of the effects of land grabbing machinations in Kenya today. The eviction of the Kalenjini and Masai way back in time from their land in the Rift valley and ultimately donating it to the Kikuyu did not solve the land problem but drove the problem underground. What butchering of ethnic Kikuyu and Luos today is a manifestation of what unfair land distributions can do. Can some of our leaders read some of the history freely around today? The spirit of Ego and lack of vision is enemy number one which is eating deep in our souls. Africa is a bleeding continent and we can’t afford to have more genocides culminating from land injustice.
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