By Hellen Nyamweru: In Mbale,land has always been a contentious issue just like the rest of Uganda.Recent past has seen several land wrangles in which the poor are always disadvantaged,they lose the battle and end up being pushed away from an area they used to call home,they become destitute.This is even made worse by the fact that peoples' knowledge on their rights and responsibilities when it comes to land is very minimal.Since the enactment of the lands act ( 1998) little sensitization has been done to ensure people fully understand issues concerning land.This therefore intensifies ignorance and the difference between the" Haves and the Have nots". because the poor are always exploited.
In the month of November.2010,residents in Namataala awoke to find authorities who had camped in the area ready to evict the residents of the settlement with claims that the land had been sold to an investor.What followed was a revelation of accounts that had led to the act.The ownership of land in Namataala is under the customary land tenure.Over 70% of land in Uganda is held on customary tenure system.In such cases,people own their land,have their rights to it but have no land tittles.The land is communally owned and controlled by elders or clan heads.Some tenants on such land allocate specific areas to themselves with known boundaries like ridges,trees,trenches.A certain resident of Namataala had approached the Mbale municipality for a lease offer which he was granted.The land already had occupants but the residents proceeded to Entebbe land offices where he 'apparently' acquired a land title.He then sold the land to a third party after a couple of months which made the buyer the rightful owner of the land.This is how the near eviction of over 50 households in the area came to be.
Fortunately,the Local Council II General secretary of Namataala parish,Mr.Maai Patrick is an active member of the Mbale slum dwellers federation.He rushed restore calm in the area and together with other slum dwellers approached the Mbale municipality for clarification on this issue.After several meetings and interventions,the eviction was stopped.
The above account and other similar stories came up during the recent sensitization on the upcoming enumeration and mapping exercises set to start soon in Mbale.The ground work has already been done,meetings with municipality authorities,area leaders such as in the parishes and zones.The community is also very ready to undertake this activity and the federation is continuously conducting mobilization at the grassroots.
It is imperative to note that appreciation of this exercise; community enumeration and mapping is a major ingredient of the whole process.The community will own the information which they are about to undertake and in the same way use it to negotiate for better services in their areas.The information will also be useful for the municipalities to plan for its own, -'if you do not understand an area,then you cannot plan for it".We already have slums in our settlements,demolition of these slums will not help,its moving a problem from one area to another .In any case gentrification of areas may simply occasion recrudescence of slum conditions in other areas of the city.The only solution to the problem is proper planning which we can only achieve through the enumeration and mapping activities.Many preparatory meetings have been held to try and deal with the mind slate of the community;to make them realize that they should be actively involved in their own development .The community is ready to undertake this historic exercise that is going to drive and transform Mbale to a city.
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