News on Land

The Government in 2017 put in place Guidelines for Compensation Assessment under Land Acquisition Act.

These proposals are for reform of laws relating to land acquisition by the Government, and they include the amendment to the Land Acquisition Act (Cap 226) in order to bring it into conformity with Article 26 of the Constitution of Uganda. This has remained a big concern among the citizens who lack clarity and specificity on how to deal with land acquisition issues.

Bonn, 17/06/2020 - World leaders are rallying support for a coordinated and coherent approach to reverse the loss of healthy land in light of the role it can play in the global efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to deal with the crises of climate change and the loss of biological diversity.

 

Kiryandongo – Uganda – A team of police detectives attached to the Land Protection Unit, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), and the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) have arrested a senior lands officer, Kiryandongo District Land Board for land fraud that caused a forced displacement of thousands of natives off their land.

On the 11th June the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled that the Ingonyama Trust (created as the last legislative act of the outgoing apartheid government in 1994)  had adopted an illegal policy of forcing people living on land that had occupied for generations to sign leases and pay rent to the Trust. The court ordered the Trust to pay pay back the money which it had illegally levied from people living on some 2.8 million ha of land in KwaZulu-Natal province.

The State is set to roll out a value index to make Kenya’s land market transparent and cut wasteful public project spending due to speculative activity that drives up costs, the World Bank has said.

The long-awaited index is also expected to boost own-source revenue collection by counties from land property.

Kenya currently lacks standardised land value information—a loophole that has been exploited by cartels over the years to entrench fraud and exploitation in property prices.

The majority of Kenyans are perturbed by the high cost of seeking justice in the Environment and Land court, a new survey shows.

The study by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI) shows that nearly nine in ten Kenyans (86 percent) see the cost as high, effectively making it difficult for them to secure justice.

Lengthy litigation at Kenya’s courts increases legal and court fees paid by litigants to courts or layers.

Main photo: Farmers at a FAO anti-desertification project in Burkina Faso, one of 11 countries targeted by the Global Environment Fund Initiative

The global launch of a $104 million initiative signals an ambitious effort by a range of partners to safeguard drylands in the context of climate change, fragile ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and deforestation in 11 African and Central Asian countries.

The majority of Kenyans are perturbed by the high cost of seeking justice in the Environment and Land court, a new survey shows.

The study by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI) shows that nearly nine in ten Kenyans (86 percent) see the cost as high, effectively making it difficult for them to secure justice.

Lengthy litigation at Kenya’s courts increases legal and court fees paid by litigants to courts or layers.

“However, 14 percent of the respondents felt the cost of seeking justice was affordable,” the LDGI report says.

The State is set to roll out a value index to make Kenya’s land market transparent and cut wasteful public project spending due to speculative activity that drives up costs, the World Bank has said.

The long-awaited index is also expected to boost own-source revenue collection by counties from land property.

Kenya currently lacks standardised land value information—a loophole that has been exploited by cartels over the years to entrench fraud and exploitation in property prices.

To most people, acquiring land in Uganda comes with a justified dread of having to navigate a rather tenuous sea of uncertainty regarding what rules they will have to play by, both during and after acquiring property.

The government has been paying billions of shillings in compensation for its own land in questionable payouts by the National Lands Commission.

The compensation, which involves the acquisition of land for public utilities, is allegedly a cash cow for well-connected individuals who fleece taxpayers.

Two years ago, the government spent Sh1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to acquire the Ruaraka land that later turned out to belong to the public.

THE global launch of a $104 million initiative signals an ambitious effort by a range of partners to safeguard dry lands in the context of climate change, fragile ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and deforestation in 11 African and Central Asian countries.