Uganda Citizens’ Land Tenure Type Preference and Underpinning Factors

This publication presents in detail, existing land tenure systems, their levels of adoption, popularity and impacts on peoples’ livelihoods country wide in Uganda. A countrywide study was conducted to generate information on peoples’ perspectives of a range of land tenure system issues in Uganda, including their impacts on livelihoods, that was scanty and insufficient to guide land policy reforms. The study was aimed at elucidating the land tenure system most people would want adopted in Uganda and the reasons for their choice.

The study was guided by hypotheses that countrywide, (a) development demands and land use dynamics lead to homogenous distribution of land tenure systems (b) communities know about existing land tenure types(c)communities attribute livelihood limitations to specific land tenure types and (d)there exist one most preferred tenure type. Specific objectives were (1) to examine distribution of existing land tenure types (2) evaluate people’s knowledge of the tenure types (3) assess perceived impacts on livelihoods and (4) document the tenure type most preferred and (5) use generated knowledge to elicit support and influence Uganda’s policy on land use and ownership.

From each of Uganda’s four regions, random sample of five districts was selected and within each 40 households sampled at systematic intervals of 1km and adult member found in the house holds interviewed using a questionnaire. Overall 1224 respondents from 21 districts (11%) of Uganda’s current 111 were interviewed. The data were managed and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in Statically Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Ver 16 Inc. (Bryman and Cramer, 2009).

The results show that existing land tenure types were not equally distributed in Uganda, customary tenure is the most common, followed by freehold. Leasehold tenure is distributed countrywide but among few households while, mailo tenure is found in some districts in central and western regions of Uganda. Communal tenure is in a few areas in western and northeastern regions. The four land tenure types were not homogenously known country wide, most households in Gulu, Bududa, Kanungu and Mbarara districts with the following profile were more knowledgeable about different land tenure types in Uganda: age group 40-51, family size 4-6, secondary school level educated, those who had stayed for 16-20 or more years in the present area they are in , those who originated from within Uganda, those who had land near water bodies, those who owned land, those who had landholding size of 4-7 hectares and among those who were unhappy with the type of land tenure they held.

Communal and leasehold land tenure types were responsible for the following limitations to achievement of improved livelihoods as reported by respondents: access to food, medicine, income, access to land for tree planting, homestead establishment, inheritance, burial and land for offer as collateral for securing loans. Customary land tenure type limited land owners’ access to medicine, income, tree planting and homestead establishment. The mailo land tenureship limited owners’ access to medicine, tree planting and burial of deceased relatives.

Morethan3/4 of the households involved in this study preferred freehold land tenure system while, communal and mailo land tenure systems were the least preferred (by more than 1/2 of the households. These results provide evidence of the need for the government of Uganda to promote freehold land tenure system countrywide in practice and in the nations land policies and laws. This will however also require the government to carry out further consultations with different stakeholders and with communities countrywide, for proper policy and legal developments.